Despite Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court judgement on Thursday, Maithripala Sirisena’s opponents may not yet be able to write him off, warned The Economist today.
“As unusual as it was, the court’s slap to the country’s head of state came as no surprise,” said the paper. “Mr Sirisena has been testing the limits of his powers ever since October 26th.”
“But Mr Sirisena’s opponents may not be able to write the president off so easily,” it warned.
“He holds command of the army and other powerful institutions, and Mr Rajapaksa enjoys a bigger popular following than does Mr Wickremesinghe—or at least he did, until the president convinced him to jump the gun on elections that he probably would have won. Constitutionally, the president has few options. But his behaviour over the past few months suggests the constitution is not always his lodestar.”
See the full piece here.
