Sri Lankan Parliament's speaker Karu Jayasuriya looks on as government and opposition members of the parliament confront each other during a special parliamentary session, Colombo, Sri Lanka. 15 November 2018. NurPhoto/ Press Association. All rights reserved.
Sri Lanka’s constitutional crisis was conjured up out of thin air by President Maithripala Sirisena when he unilaterally and unconstitutionally sacked the incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, appointed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new PM, sacked the cabinet and appointed a new cabinet. He then prorogued parliament to buy time for the new (unconstitutional) PM to win a majority in the house (through bribery and horse trading) and dissolved parliament when these attempts proved unsuccessful.
Multiple political parties, civil society groups and private citizens petitioned the Supreme Court. The Court obliged by granting interim relief through staying the gazette notification by which parliament was dissolved.
