Sri Lanka’s major political parties and an election commission member on Monday dragged President Maithripala Sirisena to the Supreme Court, challenging his controversial move of dissolving Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end.
Sirisena dissolved Parliament on November 9 and announced snap polls to be held on January 5 next year after it became evident that he did not have enough support in the House to prove the premiership of 72-year-old Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he has appointed PM after abruptly sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe on October 26.
Rajapaksa needed the support of minimum 113 parliamentarians in the 225-member House to prove his majority.
Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP), the main opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the leftist JVP or the People’s Liberation Front (PLF) were among the 10 groups that filed the fundamental rights petitions in the apex court, seeking declaration of the president’s action as illegal, officials said.
The petitioners also include Election Commission member Prof Ratnajeevan Hoole. The Supreme Court adjourned till Tuesday morning the hearing of the petitions. The petitions were taken up for hearing before a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Nalin Perera, Justices Prasanna Jayawardane and Priyantha Jayawardane.