Sri Lanka parliament sacking disputed in court
Challenge ups ante in nation’s political crisis
COLOMBO: Supporters of Sri Lanka’s fired prime minister and a top election official yesterday challenged in court the president’s sacking of parliament, upping the ante in a political crisis that has sparked international alarm.
The deposed prime minister’s United National Party and the opposition Tamil National Alliance filed formal petitions with the 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 Mr Silva, who was state minister of economic affairs under Ranil 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 set to reconvene on Jan 17.
The formal legal challenge is the latest twist in a constitutional crisis that began Oct 26 when Mr Sirisena unexpectedly fired Mr Wickremesinghe, who served since 2015 as prime minister in a unity government with the president. Mr Sirisena attempted to install Sri Lanka’s former strongman president Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new prime minister.
News of the election hit investors yesterday which led Sri Lankan dollar bonds to decline in a Bloomberg Barclays index of Asian sovereign and corporate notes during early trading. The nation’s sovereign bonds due in 2025 dropped 2.1 cents on the dollar to 87, the biggest decline in two weeks, while the country’s bond maturing in 2022 fell to a record low.
Mr 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 on Nov 14. He also referred to allegations of bribery by saying members of the legislature now had ‘price tags’ on them.
Although Mr Rajapaksa enjoys widespread support for his role in bringing an end to Sri Lanka’s brutal 26-year civil war in 2009, some like Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, said the controversial move to reinstate him has been unpopular.
“The premature dissolution, the perceived unfairness of sacking Mr Wickremesinghe, this will generate sympathy for him,” Mr 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 Mr 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 (66 billion baht) 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 jeopardise Sri Lanka’s economic progress and international reputation.”
Mr Rajapaksa, who led Sri Lanka for a decade before he lost to Mr Sirisena and Mr 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,” Mr Rajapaksa said in a post on Twitter late on Friday.
Mr Rajapaksa, who was previously a member of Mr Sirisena’s party, announced on Sunday he was joining the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, or People’s Front, the party he created earlier this year to defeat Mr Sirisena and Mr Wickremesinghe in local elections. However, that doesn’t mean Mr Rajapaksa has abandoned Mr Sirisena, and state-run media yesterday said the two leaders were planning to fight the election as an alliance.
“We will strive to create a broader coalition with many stakeholders under the leadership of Mr Sirisena and Mr Rajapaksa to face the upcoming General Election and come out victorious,” said Mr Rajapaksa’s lawmaker son Namal, who also joined the party over the weekend, on Twitter.
Relations between Mr Wickremesinghe and Mr Sirisena became strained this year after their coalition was defeated in local elections by a Rajapaksa-backed party. Mr Sirisena said he had to fire the prime minister for mismanaging the economy and because of a cabinet minister’s alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate Mr Sirisena.
While Mr Wickremesinghe may get some sympathy from the recent developments, Mr Rajapaksa, who comes from rural southern Sri Lanka, retains a strong degree of support among the Sinhala ethnic majority by espousing Buddhist nationalism.