Ousted Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is mounting a legal challenge against Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to dissolve parliament and call a snap general election.
The deposed prime minister’s United National Party and the opposition Tamil National Alliance yesterday filed formal petitions with the Sri Lankan Supreme Court challenging the dissolution of parliament, according to party member Harsha de Silva and Tamil leader R. Sambanthan.
“We are prepared to go for an election, but this is illegal,” said De Silva, who was state minister of economic affairs under Wickremesinghe’s government.
The 225-seat parliament, which had already been suspended in the political chaos, was dissolved at midnight on Friday with a vote scheduled for Jan. 5 and a new parliament to reconvene on Jan. 17.
The formal legal challenge is the latest twist in a constitutional crisis that began Oct. 26 when Sirisena unexpectedly fired Wickremesinghe, who served since 2015 as prime minister in a unity government with the president. Sirisena attempted to install former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new prime minister.
Sirisena said in a statement on Sunday that he dissolved parliament because he feared the eruption of “widespread violence” when the house was due to reconvene tomorrow.
He also referred to allegations of bribery by saying members of the legislature now had “price tags” on them.
Although Rajapaksa enjoys widespread support for his role in bringing an end to Sri Lanka’s brutal 26-year civil war in 2009, some, like National Peace Council of Sri Lanka executive director Jehan Perera, said the controversial move to reinstate him has been unpopular.
“The premature dissolution, the perceived unfairness of sacking Wickremesinghe, this will generate sympathy for him,” Perera said in an interview. “Even among the general population, among thinking people, the feeling is that this is unfair and dangerous.”
The call for a fresh election came after it seemed unlikely Sirisena could prove a majority of lawmakers support his newly appointed prime minister.
The move drew strong international condemnation and stalled about US$2 billion worth of projects and grants.
“President Sirisena’s decision to dissolve parliament poses a vital threat to Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions,” the US Embassy in Colombo said in a statement posted to Twitter on Saturday. “There is much at stake and such actions jeopardize Sri Lanka’s economic progress and international reputation.”
Rajapaksa, who led Sri Lanka for a decade before he lost to Sirisena and Wickremesinghe in 2015, defended the push for a new election.
“A general election will truly establish the will of the people and make way for a stable country,” Rajapaksa said in a post on Twitter late on Friday.
Rajapaksa, who was previously a member of Sirisena’s party, on Sunday announced that he was joining the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, or People’s Front, the party he created earlier this year to defeat the Sirisena and Wickremesinghe in local elections.
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