Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday dissolved parliament and called a snap election after failing to gain enough support for his nominee for prime minister, deepening the island’s political crisis with a gamble deemed illegal by the ousted premier’s party.
Sirisena sparked the two week-old drama last month by sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister and naming Mahinda Rajapakse — the country’s authoritarian president from 2005 until 2015 — as his replacement.
But Wickremesinghe has refused to back down, and the move to dissolve parliament came hours after Sirisena’s party acknowledged that Rajapakse was eight MPs short of a majority needed to end the power struggle.
Sirisena signed a decree dismissing the island’s 225-member assembly and scheduled parliamentary elections for January 5, nearly two years ahead of schedule.
International concern has grown over the mounting turmoil, with Wickremesinghe refusing to leave the premier’s official residence while the president also suspended parliament to head off any revolt against his action.
There was no immediate comment from Wickremesinghe, but his United National Party (UNP) said it will challenge Sirisena’s sacking of the legislature.
“This dissolution by the President is illegal and goes against the constitution,” the UNP said on Twitter. “We will be fighting this to ensure that democracy reigns supreme in the country.”
“He has robbed the people of their rights and the democracy that we have enjoyed,” the UNP said.
Sirisena’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) admitted ahead of the president’s stunning announcement that they had failed to secure enough cross-over MPs to win a confidence vote in the House.
By avoiding a test of his majority on the floor of the House, Rajapakse will remain caretaker prime minister until elections are concluded and a new parliament meets on January 17.
Before signing the order sacking the parliament with effect from Friday midnight, Sirisena also inducted more ministers into his cabinet.
“At the moment we have 104 or 105 MPs,” UPFA spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters, adding that the Sirisena-Rajapakse group hoped to secure support from “crossover” legislators.
The admission, which came despite Sirisena’s earlier claim that he had the support of 113 legislators when he sacked Wickremesinghe, had fuelled speculation that he would go for snap elections.
The leftist People’s Liberation Front (JVP), which regards the sacking of Wickremesinghe as unconstitutional, accused Sirisena of trying to consolidate his power grab.
“Dissolving parliament at this time is illegal and goes against the constitution,” JVP general secretary Tilvin Silva told reporters.
Sirisena suspended parliament to give himself more time to engineer defections, according to the opposition.
Several legislators have said they were offered millions of dollars to switch allegiance and at least eight have already jumped to the president’s side.
Wickremesinghe, who has not left the Temple Trees residence since his sacking, maintains that the action against him was unconstitutional and illegal, and insists his group can muster a majority.
Under pressure from the United Nations, United States and the European Union to allow a parliament vote, Sirisena agreed three times to lift the suspension but changed his mind each time.
The EU said Friday, before the dissolution, that the crisis had scarred the Indian Ocean island’s international reputation.
The EU, in a joint statement with Norway and Switzerland, called for parliament to reconvene and hold an immediate vote
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