<p>Sri Lankan civil society organisations joined political parties in mounting a legal challenge to the president's decision last week to dissolve parliament.&nbsp;</p> <p>The UNP, TNA, JVP, the TPA and ACMC, as well as the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) have filed petitions at the Supreme Court today. &nbsp;</p> <p>Announcing its decision to take legal action, the TNA spokesperson said, the 19th amendment to the constitution makes it ‘crystal clear’ that the president did not have the authority to dissolve parliament before it had passed its four and a half year term.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said the UNF would form a new alliance in order "save the nation".&nbsp;</p> <p>Urging all political parties to join this force, Ranil vowed "we will not allow anyone to destroy this nation which we have managed to safeguard at the risk of our lives."</p> <p>"I promise to pull this nation through the present curse by associating myself in a new and a broad alliance. Therefore I invite everyone to join this new political force,” he added.&nbsp;</p>

The promise of reforms “have vanished” in Sri Lanka, said The Hindu in an editorial this morning, as it called the move to dissolve parliament an “act of desperation” and warned that confidence in writing a new constitution for the island has been undermined.

“Sri Lanka is at a crossroads where it has to make a crucial choice between democratic consolidation or a retreat to authoritarianism,” said the paper. “The judiciary has a crucial task at hand.”

It added that the “promise held out by the 2015 reforms seems to have vanished with [Maithripala Sirisena’s] actions”.

Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force has deployed troops to state media institutions: Lake House; Rupavahini; Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation; and ITN; as well as to the Attorney General’s Department and the Department of Government Printers, claiming that this is to bolster 'security'. 

State media agencies were among the first institutions to be taken under the control of the de facto Rajapaksa-Sirisena government, with Rajapaksa supporters taking the institutions by force within hours of him swearing-in as prime minister last month. 

Journalists and media workers said they were thinking of quitting their jobs as a result of the political interference. 

^{File photograph. Sri Lanka's current president Maithripala Sirisena}

Sri Lanka’s president claimed that he had to dissolve parliament in a surprise announcement on Friday or else there would have been “commotion and fights in every city and every village”.

Maithripala Sirisena defended the move, which deepened Sri Lanka’s ongoing political crisis, by stating it was needed to avoid “street fights in every part of the country”.

The annual tree planting drive in the Northern Province to honour fallen LTTE cadres was marked with a cultural programme and plant sale and exhibition in Jaffna on Saturday.

Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa has left the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) with a reported 44 other parliamentarians, as a flood of lawmakers joined the Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) this weekend.

Rajapaksa took up his membership on Sunday morning before SLPP chairman and former Sri Lankan foreign minister G L Peiris.

^{File photograph. M K Stalin, current president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).}

Political parties in Tamil Nadu condemned the dissolving of Sri Lanka's parliament, describing it as a "political emergency that threatened stability and jeopardised the welfare of Tamils", PTI reports. 

The DMK leader M K Stalin said the dissolution of parliament was “trampling of the Constitution”,  “atrocious” and the "murder of democracy". 

The UN Secretary General expressed concern over Sri Lanka's ongoing political crisis, calling on he government to ensure the safety of all Sri Lankans and to uphold its commitments to human rights, justice and reconciliation. 

Sri Lanka's political turmoil sparked by the president's sacking of the prime minister last month descended further into crisis last week after his decision to dissolve parliament, sacking all 225 lawmakers and calling fresh parliamentary elections. 

<p>The European Union said it&nbsp;expected a "swift and peaceful" resolution to Sri Lanka's political&nbsp;crisis in line with the constitution.</p> <p>Sri Lanka's political turmoil sparked by the president's sacking of the prime minister last month descended further into crisis last week after his decision to dissolve parliament, sacking all 225 lawmakers and calling fresh parliamentary elections.&nbsp;</p>