By Political circles in Colombo are still debating who prompted businessman C.D. Lenawa to file a fundamental rights (FR) petition seeking an order to prevent the calling of a presidential election until the Supreme Court delivers its interpretation on the date of the presidential poll.
A five-member Supreme Court bench consisting of Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Vijith Malalgoda, Murdu Fernando, Preethi Padman Surasena and S. Thurairaja considered the petition.
Lenawa’s petition has now been dismissed with a cost of one hundred thousand rupees. Many social media commentators pointed out that the petitioner’s claim was absurd and made with ulterior motives. The Presidential Media Division was quick to distance Ranil Wickremesinghe from the petition.
Some claim that this is a last-minute attempt by Ranil Wickremesinghe loyalists to keep him in power. A SJB source said that a person such as Lenawa, who has no known political activity, would not file such a petition on his own, and soon the country will know who was behind this act, which does not favour democracy very much.
Businessman C.D. Lenawa, said that he filed the petition on his own and that he was not motivated by any one else.
He believed that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution had not been passed properly, and therefore he thought he could draw public attention to the lapse.
