In a landmark decision, Sri Lanka's highest court found President Ranil Wickremesinghe guilty of 'unlawful conduct' on Thursday for postponing local elections by over a year.
Although the ruling does not have immediate legal implications due to presidential immunity, it sets the stage for the economy to become a crucial issue in next month's presidential elections, AFP reports.
In a significant development, a five-judge bench of Sri Lanka's Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday that President Ranil Wickremesinghe acted unlawfully by delaying local government elections, originally scheduled for March 2023.
This decision comes as Wickremesinghe, 75, seeks re-election for a five-year term next month, facing stiff competition from rival candidates.
The postponed local polls, now superseded by the September 21 presidential election, would have been the first vote since Wickremesinghe assumed office two years ago.
His presidency followed the ousting of former strongman President Gotabaya Rajapaksa by protesters enraged over Sri Lanka's unprecedented financial crisis.
The court condemned President Wickremesinghe's administration for prioritising public servant salaries and pensions over funding the local polls, despite a prior court directive.
The judges deemed Wickremesinghe's actions "arbitrary and unlawful," leading to a violation of constitutional rights.
In its ruling, the court instructed the independent election commission to conduct the local polls at the earliest opportunity, without interfering with the upcoming presidential election.
Additionally, the state was ordered to cover the legal expenses of the four petitioners who contested the indefinite postponement of the polls.
Wickremesinghe, formerly an opposition MP, was elected interim president by lawmakers in July 2022, following the resignation of his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa amid mass protests over the economic crisis.
To secure a $2.9 billion IMF bailout in March 2023, Wickremesinghe implemented unpopular austerity measures, including doubling income taxes, removing energy subsidies, and increasing prices.
The local polls, initially scheduled for March 2023, were seen as a referendum on these measures. However, opposition lawmakers accused Wickremesinghe of exploiting the economic crisis to undermine democracy, claiming he deliberately sabotaged the polls.
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