Paul Walter

In an historic decision, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court rules that the President’s dissolution of parliament was illegal

By | Thu 13th December 2018 - 12:30 pm

Embed from Getty Images

This follows on from my post on November 29th.

The Sri Lankan Supreme Court has just ruled unanimously that President Sirisena acted illegally when he dissolved Parliament and called early elections.

The Supreme Court confirmed the constitutional position, which is that the President can only call elections four and a half years after the last ones, or with the support of a two-thirds majority of Parliament.

In late October, President Sirisena also dismissed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa. However, Parliament twice passed motions of no confidence in Rajapaksa. For good measure, yesterday they passed a motion of confidence in Wickremesignhe as Prime Minister. Parliament has also voted to cut off funding to “Prime Minister” Rajapaksa and the cabinet he has chosen.

Without delay, President Sirisena needs to abide by the Supreme Court ruling and reinstate Prime Minister Wickremesinghe or another Prime Minister who enjoys the majority support of Parliament.

Any other course by the President will lead Sri Lanka down a very dark path. Tourism has started to grow in the country in the last few years. Many people see it as one of the most beautiful places in the world. I can’t see people continuing to flock to Sri Lanka if it has a President who is playing fast and loose with the constitution, with all the civil unrest that implies.

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.

Read more by or more about .
This entry was posted in Op-eds.
Advert

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

If you are a member of the party, you can have the Lib Dem Logo appear next to your comments to show this. You must be registered for our forum and can then login on this public site with the same username and password.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert



Recent Comments

  • User AvatarJoe Bourke 20th Jun - 12:22am
    The actual reference is "Keynesian economists such as Paul Krugman argue that fiscal deficits crowd-in private sector investment. Well-targeted, timely and temporary increases in government...
  • User AvatarGordon 19th Jun - 11:24pm
    Thanks for this John, The Lib Dems have a federal structure so it’s rather odd that this hasn’t been reflected much in policy. England has...
  • User Avatarnigel hunter 19th Jun - 10:57pm
    In no way should we be going snooping for peoples wealth indoors,find another way. If there is opposition to wind farms on land an alternative...
  • User AvatarMichael BG 19th Jun - 10:47pm
    Peter, I liked your link to tutor2u. Geoff Riley states, “Keynesian economists argue that fiscal deficits crowd-in private sector investment”. If the economy is not...
  • User AvatarJoe Bourke 19th Jun - 10:45pm
    Michael BG, the Brexit forecasts are based on permanent loss of growth. The BofE forecast https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/report/2018/eu-withdrawal-scenarios-and-monetary-and-financial-stability.pdf?la=en&hash=B5F6EDCDF90DCC10286FC0BC599D94CAB8735DFB notes: "The estimated paths for GDP, CPI inflation and...
  • User AvatarSean Hyland 19th Jun - 9:58pm
    Interesting post Kirsten many thanks. As an ex Specialist Learning Disabilities Nurse I can relate to what you are saying. Seems no party has any...