INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightAFPImage caption
Supporters of ousted PM Ranil Wickremesinghe had gathered outside the court ahead of the
verdict
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has suspended the president's move to dissolve parliament, as a political crisis in
the island nation deepens.President Maithripala Sirisena shocked the nation by sacking parliament and calling snap elections on Friday.The
dramatic decision came two weeks after Mr Sirisena fired his prime minister and replaced him with the country's former leader.But his
actions have been called unconstitutional.Ranil Wickremesinghe, the ousted PM, had refused to give way to his named successor, Mahinda
Rajapaksa, and had called for MPs to vote on who they believed was the rightful premier.Correspondents said the president and Mr Rajapaksa
decided to called the snap election because they did not have enough support in parliament for their new government
Mr Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) said the move was illegal and it and other parties filed petitions with the Supreme
Court.Its order means that elections, announced for 5 January, have been put on hold
Hundreds of heavily-armed police had been deployed to the court ahead of Tuesday's decision and UNP supporters set off firecrackers in
celebration as news of the order filtered out."The people have won their first victory
Let's go forward and re-establish the sovereignty of the people in our beloved country," tweeted Mr Wickremesinghe
Namal Rajapaksa, an MP and son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, responded by saying the court had not made a "final decision".What's the backgroundMr
Sirisena, the president, and Mr Wickremesinghe, the sacked prime minister, joined forces in the 2015 election to defeat the then long-time
president, Mr Rajapaksa.But their uneasy coalition has since fractured and on 26 October Mr Sirisena announced he was sacking the PM and
replacing him with Mr Rajapaksa.The pair had reportedly clashed in cabinet recently over government plans to lease a port to India.Image
copyrightEPAImage caption
Mr Wickremesinghe has refused to leave office after his sacking
The sacking
left the country with two people claiming to run the government, and Mr Wickremesinghe refused to leave his residence, Temple
Trees.President Sirisena had agreed to convene parliament on 14 November but then dramatically reversed course last Friday, when he said he
was dissolving parliament
It's unclear if parliament will now convene on Wednesday as originally planned but senior UNP officials have told the
TheIndianSubcontinent that its MPs will show up.Who is RajapaksaMahinda Rajapaksa is a popular but controversial figure
As president, he ended the decades-long civil war in 2009, but faced criticism for the means by which he achieved victory - many thousands
of Tamil civilians are thought to have been killed by government forces in the final months of the fighting.The military has always denied
this, but it has remained a bitterly contentious issue and been the subject of intense scrutiny
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Mr Rajapaksa has been accused of massive corruption and atrocities during the
country's civil war
Mr Rajapaksa also signed several large infrastructural deals with China when he was in office -
saddling Sri Lanka with billions of dollars in debt
The former president and his inner circle are also accused of corruption, which they deny.
