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Sri Lanka crisis
Why is it in news?
- Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court stayed President Maithripala Sirisena’s dissolution of Parliament and restrained the Election Commission from preparing for snap elections.
- The ruling comes amid a fortnight-long political upheaval.
- It remains unclear if the House will take up a floor test.
- But its reconvening, nearly three weeks after it was prorogWhyued, and subsequently dissolved — comes as good news to parties that deemed the President’s sudden actions unconstitutional.
- The people have won their first victory.
- Let’s go forward and re-establish the sovereignty of the people in our beloved country.
- President Sirisena’s November 9 decision to dissolve Parliament came shortly after his party publicly admitted to lacking a majority in the House, heightening a political crisis that began on October 26.
Events of crisis
- In a snap move, Mr. Sirisena fired his PM Wickremesinghe, installed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place, and swiftly swore in a “new cabinet”, in the face of strong local and international criticism.
- In exactly two weeks, Mr. Sirisena dissolved Parliament, preventing a vote on the House to test the rival camps’ claims to majority.
- Almost all political parties, except those aligned to the Sirisena-Rajapaksa front, petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday, challenging the “illegal” action.
- One independent election commissioner joined them.
- A formidable line-up of senior lawyers represented the 11 petitioners who made submissions to the three-member Bench led by the country’s Chief Justice Nalin Perera.
- The Attorney General responded invoking the President’s plenary powers in the Constitution to argue that his actions were constitutional.
- The CJ read out the order around 6 p.m.
Source
The Hindu