Sri Lanka high court clears president to seek third term News
Sri Lanka high court clears president to seek third term

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka [official website] ruled [press release] Tuesday that President Mahinda Rajapaksa [official website] can stand for a third six-year term and declared snap presidential polls four years into his term in office. The Supreme Court ruled that there were no constitutional or legal barriers impeding him from seeking a third term. Its reported that 38 petitions were filed in favor and against Rajapaksa’s case before the high court. Some believed that the decision was an improper [Reuters report] interpretation of the law, including one Buddhist monk who said that this ruling would lower confidence in the judiciary.

The Sri Lankan government has been recently been criticized internationally for possible human rights violations. Earlier this mont UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein criticized [JURIST report] the Sri Lankan government for its continued attacks on the integrity of the current investigation into serious human rights violations. This is not the first time Sri Lanka and the UN have disagreed with each other. In April Sri Lanka’s foreign minister announced [JURIST report] that Sri Lanka would not cooperate with the UN investigation of alleged war crimes resulting from the country’s civil war. In June the former UN high commissioner for human rights made public her great alarm [JURIST report] of the inter-communal violence happening in Sri Lanka, which followed a long history of violent crimes in the country.

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