COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the president's order to dissolve Parliament and hold new elections, opening the way for lawmakers to vote on whether to accept his earlier ouster of the prime minister. The decision on Tuesday was the latest in a protracted political crisis triggered by Sirisena's surprise move on October 26 to fire Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replace him with Mahinda Rajapaksa, a controversial former president. Sirisena dissolved Parliament and ordered snap election on January 5, plunging the country's into an unprecedented political and constitutional crises since October 26 when he sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa. The UNP had "vehemently" rejected the sacking of the parliament and demanded a House vote to prove that the deposed leader still had the backing of at least 113 legislators. That was when Sirisena ended his increasingly rocky political alliance with Wickremesinghe by ousting the minister and replacing him within hours with Rajapaksa.
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka reverses President Maithripala Sirisena's decisions to dissolve Parliament and to hold snap elections.