Sri Lanka crisis: President Maithripala Sirisena sacks entire parliament in midnight manoeuvre, after failing to win votes for preferred PM
- Dramatic move is the latest twist in the battle for the prime minister’s office between Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was fired last month
Sri Lanka’s largest party announced on Saturday a legal challenge to President Maithripala Sirisena’s sacking of parliament, a move that has plunged the Indian Ocean island nation into fresh turmoil and alarmed the international community.
Sirisena announced on Friday night that he was dissolving parliament and called fresh elections on January 5, two weeks after sacking prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replacing him with the controversial Mahinda Rajapakse.
Mangala Samaraweera, finance minister in Wickremesinghe’s sacked cabinet, said Saturday that their United National Party (UNP) would file a challenge with Sri Lanka’s top court next week, saying the president had “kicked the constitution in the teeth”.
“We will go to the courts,” Samaraweera told reporters in Colombo. “We will fight in the courts, we will fight in parliament and we will fight at the polls.”
Shortly before sacking the legislature, Sirisena also took over the police department by attaching it to his defence ministry. He also took control of the state printer, a crucial institution that publishes decrees and proclamations. He had already taken control of all state media outlets soon after dismissing Wickremesinghe on October 26.