<p>Sri Lanka’s parliament looks set to be reconvened on Wednesday morning, following a decision from the Supreme Court to temporarily stay the dissolution of parliament.</p>

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily stayed president Maithripala Sirisena’s order to dissolve parliament, as political turmoil on the island continues.

The court said that hearings for a decision on the legality of parliament’s dissolution will be fixed for December, 5, 6 and 7. 

This week Kilinochchi district residents continued to clear their local thuyilum illams, LTTE cemeteries, in preparation for Maaveerar Naal - the Tamil National Remembrance Day - on November 27.

Western diplomats shunned the newly appointed foreign minister, Sarath Amunugama, who held a meeting today.  

Ambassadors of Britain, Netherlands, Norway, France, Australia, South Africa, Italy, and Canada did not attend in protest against the Sri Lankan president's decision to sack the prime minister and dissolve parliament, Reuters reported. 

However, the United States, Germany and the European sent representatives to the meeting. 

<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>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>

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.”

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”.

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.

^{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 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>