Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka recently after the collapse of the governing coalition.
What is the overview?
The government of Sri Lanka is led by the president of the country who is the head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces.
The presidential system is determined by the Sri Lankan constitution and the current constitution of Sri Lanka is the third constitution since the country got independence in 1948.
The Sri Lankan government comprises the president and legislature that are elected on a national level, and the elections are held after every six years.
The President of Sri Lanka is elected by the people to serve a term of five years.
The elected president who is the head of cabinet is also responsible for appointing cabinet ministers, who are responsible to Parliament.
The deputy to the President in Sri Lanka is the prime minister who is also the leader of the ruling party in Parliament.
The President is responsible for dissolving the current cabinet and appointing a new one in the event that a parliamentary no confident vote is passed.
The president has also the power to suspend, summon, end a legislative session and dissolve Parliament at any time if it has served for one year.
The Sri Lanka has a multi-party system where there are two dominant parties which includes the New Demonstrate Front (NDF) and the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
What are the present events?
Rajapaksha served as the president for a period of ten years in Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015.
He is a fierce political opponent of the current President Sirisena.
Sirisena had defeated Rajapaksha in the Presidential election of 2015.
Sirisena's SLFP and Wickremesinghe's UNP had come together to form the Unity Government in August 2015 following the general elections in the country.
The ousted Prime Minister, Wickremesinghe also survived a no-confidence motion in the country's Parliament that was brought by the supporters of Rajapaksa before.
However, Mr. Sirisena’s fast-deteriorating relationship with Mr. Wickremesinghe was an open secret, and there were indications that he could be negotiating a possible partnership with Mr. Rajapaksa.
Hence, Sirisena has recently decided to withdraw his faction from the ruling coalition as a sudden and secret manoeuvre.
He replaced Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa which has plunged the country into a political crisis.
Mr. Wickremesinghe has termed his replacement “unconstitutional” and maintains that he remains Prime Minister.
He has also challenged the Rajapaksa-Sirisena combine to take a floor test in the 225-member House.
In return, the president suspends the parliament, which is seen to have exposed his own insecurity about garnering the required strength.
All this has come at a time of economic fragility, with a plummeting rupee, soaring unemployment and rising living costs in the country.
What are the concerns?
An extra-parliamentary power struggle, with the usage of illegal means, heightens the risk of political thuggery and unrest.
Mr. Sirisena’s appointment of Mr. Rajapaksa even before conducting the floor test on the Parliament is a blatant abuse of his executive powers.
The President’s actions betray an utter disregard for the parliamentary process, guided by narrow political interests.
He has put democracy in serious peril in resorting to these emergency measures.
He has also let down Sri Lankans, including a sizeable section of the Tamil and Muslim minorities that backed him in the critical 2015 election.
Sri Lanka is still recovering from the violence and bloodbath during its nearly three-decade-long civil war and has been grappling with the economic and social challenges in its aftermath.
The Unity Government had promised to put the country back on the path of democracy, after a decade of Mr. Rajapaksa’s authoritarian rule.
But the recent episode shows that Sri Lanka cannot afford to recede from the democratic space that opened up with the coalition.
Desire of the president to consolidate power by hook or by crook is extremely unfortunate.
Though much damage has been done already, a fair vote must be ensured when Parliament reconvenes to ensure a stable government.
