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Bloomberg
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved the island nation’s parliament and called for a snap general election amid mounting pressure to prove a majority in the house supports his newly appointed prime minister.
The 225-seat parliament was dissolved at midnight and a new one will meet on January 17 after a vote on January 5, according to a presidential announcement. The speaker of
Sri Lanka’s parliament, Karu Jayasuriya, warned the country could descend into political violence if the legislature remained suspended.
“The US is deeply concerned by news the Sri Lanka Parliament will be dissolved, further deepening the political crisis,†the US State Department said in a Twitter post. “As a committed partner of Sri Lanka, we believe democratic institutions and processes need to be respected to ensure stability and prosperity.†The dissolution is the latest twist in a constitutional crisis that began on October 26 when Sirisena unexpectedly fired Ranil Wickremesinghe, who served since 2015 as prime minister in a unity government with Sirisena.
He attempted to install Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new prime minister.
Relations between Wickremesinghe and Sirisena became strained this year after their coalition was defeated in local elections by a Rajapaksa-backed party. Sirisena said he had to fire Wickremesinghe for mismanaging the economy and because of a Cabinet minister’s alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate Sirisena.
Wickremesinghe insists he holds a majority in parliament and has refused to vacate his position while Rajapaksa — a former strongman who ruled as president between 2005 and 2015 — enjoys widespread support for ending the country’s brutal 26-year civil war. The upheaval reverberated around the region, with analysts predicting Rajapaksa will cozy up to China to fund costly infrastructure projects.
The political uncertainty in Sri Lanka also has geopolitical implications for regional powers, with both China and India watching the events closely. New Delhi is likely to keep working diplomatically in the background unless there is overt Chinese intervention, said Constantino Xavier, a foreign policy fellow at Brookings India.