Sleeping with the enemy: How the island country of Sri Lanka came to a boil

Political intrigue has forced the island nation into early elections

One unconstitutional step often paves the way for another. President Maithripala Sirisena’s unconstitutional removal of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointing Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place has finally led to the dissolution of Parliament. It is a controversial decision because Sri Lanka’s Constitution forbids the President from dissolving Parliament before it has completed four and half years of its five year term. 

Parliamentary elections which should have been held in August 2020 have now been scheduled for January next. 

The October 26 “coup without guns”, as Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya described it, was long in the making. Personal and political differences had