{"id":2534,"date":"2018-11-19T13:58:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T13:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=2534"},"modified":"2018-11-19T13:58:08","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T13:58:08","slug":"sri-lankas-supreme-court-suspends-presidents-decision-to-dissolve-parliament-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2018\/11\/19\/sri-lankas-supreme-court-suspends-presidents-decision-to-dissolve-parliament-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka’s supreme court suspends president’s decision to dissolve parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sri Lanka\u2019s supreme court has suspended the president\u2019s controversial decision to dissolve parliament and MPs are planning to meet to decide between the two men claiming to be the country\u2019s lawful prime minister.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a verdict hailed as one of the most important in Sri Lankan history, the court ruled on Tuesday evening to suspend the order by the president, Maithripala Sirisena, calling for fresh elections that followed his attempt to install Buddhist strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa in the prime minister\u2019s office.<\/span><\/p>\n

The court said it would hear a number of petitions challenging the presidential order starting on 4 December, meaning it could still be revived. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister whom Sirisena claimed to have fired last month, said after the ruling he now had an opportunity to demonstrate he commanded majority support in parliament.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday we have witnessed a resounding victory for the people\u2019s franchise,\u201d Wickremesinghe said. \u201cThe powers of the president are limited and he must act according to the law. He is not above the law.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wickremesinghe said parliament would resume on Wednesday and hold a confidence vote on his leadership. \u201cWe will be in parliament and we will show a majority, that we are the legitimate government of <\/span>Sri Lanka<\/span><\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Karu Jayasuriya, the parliamentary speaker, said parliament would resume at 10am on Wednesday \u2013 though whether the body will be permitted to do so was unclear.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sirisena could choose to again suspend parliament, as he did shortly after purporting to sack Wickremesinghe. The president also recently took control of the police, raising the possibility they may be involved in some attempt to stop parliament from meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a reference to the uncertainty, Wickremesinghe said on Tuesday he wanted \u201cto remind the police that the honourable speaker is in charge of parliament and is responsible for the security of parliament, so they must adhere to what the speaker says\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sirasena has been attempting to install Rajapaksa, who ruled the country for a decade until 2015, as as the new prime minister. In his time in office, he drew the country closer to China and fell out with the west over a litany of alleged human rights abuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rajapaksa assumed control of the prime minister\u2019s office and named a cabinet, but his forces conceded last Friday they had failed to persuade enough MPs to join their government.<\/span><\/p>\n

This failure was seen to be the catalyst for Sirisena dissolving parliament \u2013 hoping a national election would deliver his ally Rajapaksa into government and end the constitutional crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

The court ruling extends the political turmoil that has gripped the country since Sirisena announced he was firing Wickremesinghe on 26 September.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rajapaksa\u2019s son, Namal Rajapaksa, who is also an MP, told the Guardian he did not believe parliament should reconvene until the court issued a final judgment. \u201cUntil the judgment is given you can\u2019t [do it],\u201d he said, highlighting the possibility the court could reinstate the president\u2019s order to dissolve the body when it hears the case again in a fortnight.<\/span><\/p>\n

He wrote on Twitter: \u201cThis is not the court\u2019s final decision. I [have] never seen politicians get so excited f[o]r postponing elections.\u201d He said Wickremesinghe\u2019s United National party had \u201ca history of postponing polls but eventually voters will decide\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s supreme court decision was met with cheers from crowds assembled in Temple Trees, the Colombo residence of the prime minister where Wickremesinghe has been hunkered down since the start of the crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

MA Sumanthiran, a Tamil MP, said the judgment was \u201cthe most important order the supreme court has delivered in its entire history\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sri Lanka\u2019s supreme court has suspended the president\u2019s controversial decision to dissolve parliament and MPs are planning to meet to decide between the two men claiming to be the country\u2019s lawful prime minister. In a verdict hailed as one of the most important in Sri Lankan history, the court ruled on Tuesday evening to suspend the order by the president,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2535,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions\/2535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}