Sri Lanka crisis: Key political parties move SC against President Sirisena

The parties in their petition said that Sirisena did not have Constitutional powers to dissolve the Parliament and requested the court to issue an order to nullify the gazette issued by him.

(Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP)

New Delhi: The key political parties of Sri Lanka on Monday moved the Supreme Court of the country against President Maithripala Sirisena who further escalated the country’s Constitutional crisis by dissolving Parliament on Friday and calling for a snap parliamentary election on January 5, just weeks after sacking PM Ranil Wickremsinghe and installing Mahinda Rajapakse as his replacement. The parties in their petition said that Sirisena did not have Constitutional powers to dissolve the Parliament and requested the court to issue an order to nullify the gazette issued by him and to suspend the upcoming parliamentary elections until a verdict was announced in the mater. The parties which filed Fundamental Rights petitions on Monday included the United National Party led by sacked Wickremesinghe, the main opposition Tamil National Alliance, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the Tamil Progressive Alliance and the All Ceylon Makkal Congress, the Daily Mirror reported. As per a report on the Xinhua News agency the petition filed will be considered later in the day by a three-judge Supreme Court bench including Chief Justice Nalin Perera. The sudden decision to dissolve the Parliament by Sri Lanka’s President has come almost a year and a half ahead of the scheduled parliamentary elections. The political parties were joined by S Ratnajeevan H. Hoole, a member of the country’s Election Commission, in challenging the Parliament's dissolution. After Sirisena’s sacking of Wickremsinghe, the EC met for the first time on Saturday, when Hoole refused to sign the order directing the Commissioner General if Elections to begin administrative works on holding polls in January. litical parties move SC against President Sirisena