Lankan SC rejects petition seeking disqualification of President Wickremesinghe from contesting elections

Colombo: In a significant ruling, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a fundamental rights petition seeking to disqualify President Ranil Wickremesinghe from contesting the upcoming presidential election.

The petitioner had alleged that the Lankan President’s failure to appoint an Acting Inspector General of Police and the non-appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal constituted grounds for disqualification.

“The court not only refused to hear the case but also ordered the petitioner to pay Rs. 50,000 in court fees. Additional Solicitor General Nerin Pulle, representing the Attorney General, argued that the petition was misleading and had been filed with false information, violating Article 92 of the Constitution. The court concurred with this assessment, leading to the dismissal of the petition,” the Lankan President’s media division revealed in a statement

A total of 39 candidates will be contesting the September 21 presidential election in Sri Lanka, the first after the island nation’s worst-ever economic crisis.

Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Marxist leader Anura Dissanayake are considered as the front-runners to the election.

Out of the total population of around 22 million, 17.1 Lankans are eligible to vote in the upcoming election. This includes 1.2 million new voters.

In the 2019 election, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the younger brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was elected as the President after recording a landslide victory.

However, a severe economic crisis after the Covid pandemic and several shortsighted decisions led to a major economic crisis in the country with severe shortages of basic essentials like food, fuel, medicine and cooking gas.

Widespread protests and violence forced Gotabaya to flee the country in July 2022 with several other members in the Rajapaksas family also going into hiding.

As he left, Gotabaya invited Wickremesinghe to take over the country with the support of nearly 60 per cent SLPP majority in the parliament.

Having gradually controlled the economic crisis, Wickremesinghe asked SLPP to support him in the upcoming Presidential Election but the Rajapaksas accused the President of dividing their party and denied any support.

Later, Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former President and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, also entered Sri Lanka’s Presidential election race.

— IANS