Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday suspended the parliament till November 16 after sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe sought an emergency session to prove his majority, deepening the political crisis in the island nation.
Sirisena's move is seen as an effort to allow former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa to buy more time to seek majority in the parliament.
Rajapaksa and Sirisena combine has only 95 seats and is short of a simple majority in the 225-member house. Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) has 106 seats on its own with just seven short of the majority.
The UNP claimed that President Sirisena sought to prorogue the parliament as Rajapaksa did not command a majority in the House.
Parliamentary officials said the president prorogued the house till November 16. The parliament was earlier due to meet on November 5 to unveil the 2019 annual budget.
The move to suspend the parliament came in the wake of an urgent request from Wickremesinghe to convene an emergency session of the house.
Wickremesinghe has been asserting that the swearing in of Rajapaksa in his place is "illegal and unconstitutional".
Wickremesinghe, addressing the media along with his constituent party leaders, said, This is a created crisis, there is no need for this crisis. The people must not suffer because of this at a difficult time for them."
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