SriLanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena has issued a formal notice for Ranil Wickremesinghe to step down as prime minister and recognise his shock dismissal, in an unfolding constitutional crisis and announced Mahinda Rajapakse as the new prime minister.
Wickremesinghe said that he can be removed only by parliament where his party enjoys a majority, and also vowed to seek legal action against what he condemned as an unconstitutional move against him and staying at Temple Trees, the official residence of the prime minister, and insisted in a letter to Sirisena that he was still in office. Wickremesinghe told the press “I am addressing you as the prime minister of Srilanka, I remain as prime minister and I will function as the prime minister.”
Karu Jayasuriya parliamentary speaker, aforesaid that it’ll choose Saturday whether or not to recognise Rajapakse or not, once seeking legal recommendation. Constitutional lawyers, political activists and pundits have debated on social media and Sri Lankan TV whether or not Wickremesinghe’s ouster was legitimate. The constitution says the president has the correct to appoint somebody he thinks encompasses a majority in parliament.
But the nineteenth change, supplementary in 2015, says a first-rate minister will solely be removed once he or she ceases to be a member of parliament like for failing to satisfy criteria to be associate degree elector or candidate, once a vote of no-confidence is passed, or once he or she chooses to resign.
> Alma Siddiqua
