Sri Lankan President Sirisena suspends parliament

Colombo [Sri Lanka], Oct 27 (ANI): Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has suspended the Parliament till November 16 amid constitutional crisis in the nation.
According to the Colombo Page, the Presidential Secretariat has issued the relevant Extraordinary Gazette notification. "The President has prorogued the Parliament with effect from 12 noon on Saturday," said Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
This comes after the now-ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe requested the Speaker to call an emergency Parliament session on Monday, so he could prove his majority in the house.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe on Friday night replacing him with his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa following the collapse of the governing coalition between Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and United National Party (UNP).
Terming his ouster "unconstitutional", Wickremesinghe asserted that he still holds the Prime Minister's office and is ready to prove that he retains the majority.
Several Cabinet members had also expressed outrage against this move and called it "illegal and unconstitutional."
In April, the ousted Prime Minister, Wickremesinghe also survived a no-confidence motion in the country's Parliament that was brought by the supporters of Rajapaksa.
Rajapaksha, who served as Lanka's President for a period of ten years, from 2005 to 2015 is a fierce political opponent of the current President Sirisena. Sirisena had defeated Rajapaksha in the Presidential election of 2015. (ANI)