Sri Lanka’s President Sirisena moves to dissolve parliament

President Maithripala Sirisena has moved to dissolve parliament amid a political crisis following his attempt to replace Sri Lanka’s prime minister. The official notification, which took effect at midnight on Friday (17:30 GMT), would trigger a general election on 5 January.

However, it could be challenged in the Supreme Court. The UNP party says the president does not have the power to take such action. Last month, President Sirisena named former strongman leader Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new prime minister after sacking Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his cabinet and suspending parliament.

But Mr Wickremesinghe has refused to leave, saying his sacking was illegitimate. An MP from Mr Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) said the move to dissolve parliament was “illegal” and said he believed it would be rejected.

We are requesting the election commission to solve this issue peacefully without creating a bloodbath in the country,” Ajith Perera told the BBC.

BBC Sinhala’s Azzam Ameen says the Sirisena-Rajapaksa camp are calling a snap election because they did not have enough support in parliament for their new government. The UNP meanwhile would prefer a parliamentary vote to a national election at this time, our correspondent says.

Courtesy of bbc.com