A constitutional crisis began in Sri Lanka when President Maithripala Sirisena appointed former president and member of parliament Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister on 26 October 2018 before formally dismissing the incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, resulting in two concurrent prime ministers. Wickremesinghe and the United National Party (UNP) viewed the appointment as illegal, and he refused to resign.
Sirisena's sudden decision instigated "political turmoil in the country", and drew international criticism. Wickremesinghe, the majority of the parliament, and opposition parties refused to acknowledge his removal and the appointment of Rajapaksa, stating that Sirisena's move was unconstitutional. Wickremesinghe claimed that he still commands a majority in parliament and requested that Speaker of the Parliament Karu Jayasuriya convene parliament immediately. Sirisena ignored all calls to reconvene parliament and on 27 October prorogued parliament, delaying its meeting till 16 November. After an attempt to form a new cabinet of ministers with Rajapaksa as prime minister failed, Sirisena attempted to dissolve parliament on 9 November. The UNP declared the move unconstitutional and subsequently the Supreme Court stayed Sirisena's dissolution until December 2018, when it ruled that the move was unconstitutional and illegal. Rajapaksa backed down from claiming the office and Wickremesinghe was once again reinstated, ending the crisis after 7 weeks of political and economic turmoil.
The roots of the crisis date back to the late Rajapaksa presidency. After the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Rajapaksa's presidency had become increasingly authoritarian. During his time in office, President Rajapaksa had expanded the power of the presidency significantly and strengthened ties with China. He and his close family have been accused of and are currently under investigation for corruption, and the former president has also been accused of war crimes and human rights violations.
The crisis was triggered by a false allegation of an assassination plot against President Sirisena. The crisis lasted seven weeks and had a lasting political and economic impact on the country. Due to the fragile Sri Lankan economy the crisis cost the country a billion US dollars in reserves, dropping from $7.991 billion in forex reserves to $6.985 billion. The Sri Lankan rupee ultimately devalued by 3.8% during the same time, while US$312.9 million, in the form of treasury bonds, and US$29.8 million in the form of treasury bills left the country. Sri Lanka's credit was also downgraded as a result of the crisis, while the United States and Japanese governments froze more than a billion US dollars' worth of development aid. November saw industrial activity in Sri Lanka slow as a result of the crisis, falling 3.7% from October to November, the largest seen since it began in 2016.
Background
Rajapaksa presidency
The presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, from 2005 to 2015 was an increasingly authoritarian regime characterized by the diminishing human rights in the country, nepotism, weakening of government institutions, slow progress of national reconciliation in the aftermath of the Sri Lankan Civil War, and close ties to China. Before serving as president, Rajapaksa also served as prime minister. In 2009, Rajapaksa ended the 27-year long Sri Lankan Civil War, but has been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses. At the height of his power, Rajapaksa and his family controlled 80 percent of the national budget where Rajapaksa simultaneously served as finance minister and four other cabinet posts on top of the presidency, while his three brothers served as the defence secretary and ministers of economy and ports and the Speaker of the Parliament. Many of those, including journalists, who were critical of him disappeared. According to Reuters, in the aftermath of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Rajapaksa borrowed "billions of dollars" from China to build infrastructure projects, though these had little economic value to the country. These projects were seen as vanity projects or white elephants.
2015 presidential election
In response to the degrading democracy in the country, the United National Party (UNP), along with several other parties and civil organisations, signed a Memorandum of Understanding and decided to field the then Secretary General of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Maithripala Sirisena, as the Common Candidate for the 2015 Presidential Election. Sirisena, a former health minister under Rajapaksa, pledged to appoint UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister if he were to win the election.
Sirisena won the January 2015 election and became the 7th President of Sri Lanka and appointed Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister as promised. The presidential election was followed by a General Parliamentary Elections, held on 17 August 2015, in which the UNP-lead coalition gained 106 seats in the Parliament and formed a National Government with several other parties. Wickremesinghe and the UNP came to power promising accountability for alleged atrocities committed during the Sri Lanka civil war and during the Rajapaksa presidency. Following the 2015 election defeat, Mahinda Rajapaksa held India's intelligence service, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), among those responsible for the change in regime. The Government of India also welcomed Rajapaksa's defeat, claiming that the former leader had strained ties with them while moving the country closer to China.
A national unity government was formed, which passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka on 28 April 2015, stipulating that the Prime Minister should remain in office for as long as his cabinet functions, unless he resigns or ceases to be a member of parliament.
Uneasy coalition
The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government had been struggling to repay the debts incurred during the Rajapaksa presidency. The Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port, built with Chinese money, was handed over to Beijing in a 99-year lease in 2017 as a form of payment. Sri Lanka also recorded just 3.1% economic growth rate, the lowest for 16 years in 2017. By 2018, following Mahinda Rajapaksa's proxy Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna winning a landslide victory in the 2018 local authority elections, disputes among the members of the National Government began to surface and a major rift between the president and prime minister appeared. Sirisena claimed Wickremesinghe to have led to the loss of 11 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($65 million; £50 million) in the controversial central bank bond sale, and also alleged that a cabinet minister was involved in a plot to kill him and that police had obstructed an investigation.
In 2017 opinion poll conducted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives revealed Fifty-six percent of respondents are unhappy with the coalition government. Specially 63 percent of majority Sinhalese respondents.
Special high courts for bribery and corruption cases
In May 2018, the Sri Lanka parliament approved a special high court that would expedite the hearing and trial of bribery and corruption related cases. The concept for the High Court Trial-at-Bar was instituted with the passage of amendments to the Judicature Act, the purpose of expediting cases from the Rajapaksa Government era. The Sunday Times of 15 July 2018 stated that "the former Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation chairman Gamini Senarath and its Managing Director Piyadasa Kudabalage will be the first to be indicted before the newly set up court." Senarath was the chief of staff of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Special Courts are also strongly regarded as a factor in the creation of the 2018 Constitutional Crisis.
Alleged assassination attempt
Reports of an assassination plot emerged in September when an individual named Namal Kumara claimed he was aware of a plan to assassinate President Sirisena and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Kumara was interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and in late September the police arrested an Indian national, Marceli Thomas, from Kerala, claiming he knew of the plot. Kumara alleged the Director of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police, Deputy Inspector General of Police Nalaka de Silva had masterminded the plot. Nalaka de Silva was suspended pending a formal investigation by the CID and later arrested by CID on 25 October under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and remanded till 7 November.
In mid October 2018, Indian newspaper The Hindu reported that Sirisena told Cabinet members that India's intelligence service, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), had devised a plot to assassinate him, though Sirisena denied the report. Sirisena in the cabinet meeting told Ministers that RAW was "trying to kill" him, but "Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not be aware of the plan."
On 18 October 2018, a statement released by India's Prime Minister Office (PMO) said that Sirisena called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reject the media reports about him alluding to the involvement of India in the alleged assassination plot. Sirisena also stated that he "regards the [Indian] Prime Minister as a true friend of Sri Lanka, as also a close personal friend. He stressed that he greatly valued the mutually beneficial ties between India and Sri Lanka, and remained steadfast to work with the Prime Minister for further strengthening them."
On 26 October 2018, the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) withdrew from the government, ending the national government that was in place since 2015. The same day, Sirisena also alleged that a cabinet minister was involved but did not name the cabinet minister. However said "Under these political problems, economic troubles, and the strong plot to assassinate me, the only alternative open to me was to invite former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and appoint him as Prime Minister to form a new government."
In February 2019 Sri Lankan police refused to press charges against Indian national, Marceli Thomas and cleared the man of wrongdoing due to lack of evidence. "There is no sufficient evidence to file charges against him and we will not file charges against him", S. Wijesuriya, an investigating official, told the Colombo Magistrate Court.
Timeline of events
Two Prime Ministers
The president's UPFA had earlier on Friday, 26 October, quit the national unity government that had governed with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's UNP.
Later at about 7:00 pm without a prior announcement, President Maithripala Sirisena unexpectedly appointed former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister in a live swearing-in ceremony broadcast over television. Rajapaksa took an oath of office in the presence of Sirisena and representatives of the military inside the Presidential Secretariat. He was sworn in while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was still the incumbent and away touring in the south of the country. The situation in Colombo was uneasy with some cabinet ministers immediately declaring the move unconstitutional, while other Cabinet ministers and parliamentarians began defecting to the new government.
Wickremesinghe addressed the nation saying, "I am addressing you as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. I still hold the majority of the house. [...] Convene parliament and I will prove it." Three ministers, including Mangala Samaraweera and Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne, tried to address the nation during a live television program. That day Rajapaksa loyalists stormed two state-owned television networks which they regarded loyal to Wickremesinghe and the sitting government, including Rupavahini, and forced them off the air. Troops were brought in to protect the channel's staff.
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera tweeted that Rajapaksa's appointment was "unconstitutional and illegal. This is an anti-democratic coup," saying Wickramasinghe remained leader as he could not constitutionally be removed by the president. While UPFA MP Susil Premajayantha told reporters that a new cabinet would be sworn in soon. Speaker of the Parliament Karu Jayasuriya said he was to decide on Saturday (27th), after seeking legal advice, whether to recognise Rajapaksa or not. The Parliament was not due to meet until 5 November when the 2019 national budget was to be presented. The Supreme Court, which is empowered to resolve constitutional disputes, was shut for the weekend, to be reopened on Monday.
On 27 October President Sirisena issued a formal notice for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to step down. Sirisena later issued gazettes formalising and defending the dramatic move. Wickremesinghe however entered Temple Trees, the prime minister's residence, refusing to accept the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his dismissal, insisting in a letter to Sirisena that he was still in office. Sirisena and Rajapaksa announced their intent to form a new cabinet. Nalaka Kaluwewa, an Acting Additional Secretary in the Presidential Secretariat, was appointed as Acting Director General of Information under the instructions of President Sirisena.
The day after Rajapaksa's appointment, the Parliament, which was due to meet on 5 November to discuss the budget for the next year, was prorogued by the President, delaying its meeting till 16 November. President Sirisena stated on Saturday night that the main reason for him to form a new government with Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister was the alleged plot to assassinate him. He claimed that the name of Sarath Fonseka had come up in the investigation of the CID but was suppressed.
On 27 October, Mangala Samaraweera tweeted that the security personnel and official verticals assigned to the Prime Minister were withdrawn from Wickremesinghe and assigned to Rajapaksa on orders from the President. The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jayasundara had ordered the 1,008 police and STF personnel assigned to Wickremesinghe as Prime Ministerial security to be withdrawn and replaced with 10 police personnel from the Ministerial Security Division (MSD). The security details of ministers of the former government have been also reduced to the levels provided to parliamentarians.
China, Burundi and Pakistan had recognised Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister. Chinese president Xi Jinping was one of the first to congratulate the pro-Beijing leader.
Calls to reconvene Parliament
The Speaker of Parliament, Karu Jayasuriya requested the President to reconvene parliament following consultations with party leaders of the UNP, ITAK, JVP and the SLMC on 30 October. The Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya stated that it is inappropriate for him to express an opinion on the matter, in response to a request for comment by the Speaker.