COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s president has dissolved Parliament and called for elections on Jan 5 in a bid to stave off a deepening crisis over his dismissal of the prime minister that opponents say is unconstitutional.
An official notification signed by President Maithripala Sirisena said candidate registration would be open until Nov 26 for polls that would be held on Jan 5. The new Parliament is to convene on Jan 17.
Sri Lanka has been in a crisis since Oct 26, when Sirisena fired his prime minister and one-time political ally, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and replaced him with former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Both men say they command a majority in Parliament and had been expected to face the 225-member house this coming Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Sarath Amunugama told The Associated Press on Saturday that the president felt it was necessary to dissolve Parliament and go to the people to find a resolution to the crisis.
“On the 14th there was to be a lot of commotion and unparliamentary activities sponsored by the speaker,” Amunugama said, referring to the upcoming parliamentary sitting. “The speaker was not planning to act according to the constitution and standing orders of Parliament.”
Sirisena’s supporters had been upset by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s announcement that he was going to call for a vote for either party to prove their support.
“The dissolution clearly indicates that Mr Sirisena has grossly misjudged and miscalculated the support that he might or could secure to demonstrate support in the Parliament,” said Bharath Gopalaswamy, director the South Asia Center, affiliated with the US-based Atlantic Council. “At the end of the day, he is a victim of his own homegrown crisis.”
Wickremesinghe has insisted his firing is unconstitutional. He has refused to vacate his official residence and demanded that Parliament be summoned immediately to prove he had support among its members.
Tensions had been building between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe for some time, as the president did not approve of economic reforms introduced by the prime minister. Sirisena has also accused Wickremesinghe and another cabinet member of plotting to assassinate him, a charge Wickremesinghe repeatedly denied.
Sirisena was critical of investigations into military personnel accused of human rights violations during Sri Lanka’s long civil war against a Tamil separatist group, which ended in 2009.
Rajapaksa, who ruled as president from 2005 to 2015, is credited as a hero by the ethnic Sinhalese majority for winning the conflict. But he lost a re-election bid in 2015 amid accusations of nepotism, corruption and wartime atrocities.
Wickremesinghe’s camp is likely to contest Sirisena’s move because of constitutional provisions stating that a Parliament can’t be dissolved until four and a half years after its election. The current Parliament was elected in August 2015.
“It’s totally unconstitutional,” said Harsha de Silva, a member of Wickremesinghe’s United National Party and a former minister. “Sirisena has relegated the constitution to toilet paper. We will fight this dictator to the end.”
The party said in a Twitter message that it would meet the elections commissioner to discuss the constitutionality of Sirisena’s move.
Rajapaksa indicated what was coming hours before the dissolution in a speech. He said the government must go to the people for confirmation on whether the president made the correct decision when he appointed him as prime minister.