WHAT OTHERS SAY

IN COLOMBO, A WAY OUT

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has delivered a sound verdict, one that seemed inevitable from the start of the sordid drama that President Maithripala Sirisena began on October 26 by removing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and swearing in old rival and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place. What is surprising is Sirisena’s own conviction that he could pull it off. It was under his stewardship, with Wickremesinghe as prime minister of the National Unity Government, that the Sri Lankan parliament voted to curtail the powers of the president with the 19th Amendment. The Supreme Court has ruled that the president violated the Constitution by dissolving Parliament before the constitutionally stipulated period of four and a half years in response to petitions challenging the November 9 dissolution. Article 70(1) of the Constitution is clear that the president is not empowered to do this unless there is a resolution supported by two-thirds of parliamentarians, including those not present. The judgement of the seven-member bench has declared the dissolution null and void. Just four years ago, Sirisena’s dramatic emergence as the challenger from within the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to the Authoritarian rajapaksa his Defiant candidature against the powerful Rajapaksa in the January 2015 presidential election and subsequent victory had made him something of a hero.