Political analysts said Sirisena's move to install Rajapaksa as the prime minister could lead to a constitutional crisis as the 19th amendment to the Constitution would not allow the sacking of Wickremesinghe as the premier without a majority.
The blockade of Facebook and WhatsApp has been imposed from mid-night following violent incidents between the minority Muslim and majority Sinhalese communities, officials said.
President Maithripala Sirisena said Friday that over 130 suspects linked to the Islamic State terror group have been operating in the country.
The ATR 72-600 aircraft was accorded water salute as it landed at the Jaffna airport, about 400-km from capital Colombo.
"You can change friends but not neighbours," Atal Bihari Vajpayee famously said this 15 years ago.
Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday unveiled his cabinet that included members from a cross-section of parties and announced fresh parliamentary polls in 100 days, two years ahead of schedule.
Maithripala Sirisena, who scored a stunning victory, was on Friday sworn-in as Sri Lankan president, bringing the curtains down on the 10-year rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa, marking a smooth transition of power.
Maithripala Sirisena, the Sri Lankan president-elect, will be sworn-in on Friday evening following his stunning victory in the tightest-ever presidential race that ended the 10-year-rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Over 15 million voters are eligible to vote in the election being held under electoral districts-based proportional representation system.
A major fire at one of Sri Lanka's largest ammunition depots triggered a series of explosions, killing one soldier.
Around 300 soldiers deployed for the rescue mission also saved some 180 people trapped in Aranayake village besides recovering 13 bodies from the area.
'We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the UK and maybe later on did his post-graduate in Australia, before coming back to settle in Sri Lanka'
Mahinda Rajapaksa completed 50 years of parliamentary politics in July this year. He was elected as a Member of Parliament at the young age of 24 in 1970. He has since been elected president twice and has been appointed prime minister thrice.
The SLPP, led by prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has won in 145 constituencies, bagging a total of 150 seats with its allies, a two-thirds majority in the 225-member Parliament, according to the results announced by the election commission.
Unofficial results indicate that the SLPP would comfortably win at least 17 out of the 22 districts on offer.
The 74-year-old leader, who describe himself as "a rebel with a cause", earlier served as the country's president from 2005-2015, becoming South Asia's longest-serving leader. He was also prime minister for a brief period in 2018.
In the endlessly entertaining and absorbing soap opera that is India-Sri Lanka relations, wait for the next episode, Aditi Phadnis reports.
Reacting to the apex court's ruling, sacked Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said, "We trust that the President will promptly respect the judgment of the courts.
The SC ordered a halt to preparations for snap elections on January 5.
Mahinda Rajapaksa recovered from his 2015 electoral losses, went to the people and campaigned about the injustice done to him. Without attempting to be subtle, he underscored his image of the Sinhala Buddhist warrior a la Dutugemunu, the king of Sri Lanka (164 BC to 140 BC) who led the military campaign against the invading warlord Elara.
Even as the polity find ways and means to address the genuine concerns and fears of the society, the Sri Lankan State apparatus would have to unravel these mystery-questions with convincing answers, and a road-map to the future, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In an oblique reference to China's Belt and Road Initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday cautioned against rolling out connectivity projects without respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Several homes, businesses and mosques in the hilly Kandy district have been damaged in anti-Muslim riots.
Violence erupted on Monday following which police imposed curfew in the Theldeniya area.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Rajapaksa and said he looks forward to further deepen relations between the two nations.
The National Tawheed Jamath is suspected of plotting the deadly Easter blasts.
The parliament has approved a no-trust vote against Prime Minister Rajapaksa, speaker of parliament Karu Jayasuriya announced in the House.
Polls opened at 7 am local time and would close at 5 pm with some 12,845 polling stations being set up throughout the country for 15.9 million voters, who will choose a successor to President Maithripala Sirisina.
Delhi finds itself between the rock and hard place in the coming Sri Lankan election, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
President Maithripala Sirisena's new Cabinet was also sworn in and Rajapaksa was named the new minister of finance and economic affairs.
In a Sri Lankan House of 225 members, the cut-off figure comes to 113. With Wickremesinghe side touching 102 and Rajapaksa's team at 101, the three-party Tamil National Alliance with 16 members and the left-leaning Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna with 6 members hold the key. But with the latter declaring that they will not support either formation in a vote count,that leaves the TNA as the deciding factor, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday warned Sri Lanka that "true reconciliation" with Tamils will take time, even as he praised the "openness" of the new government in efforts to boost democracy, human rights and reaching out to the minority community.
'Gotabaya will expect India to observe the red line.' 'He even dispensed with any gesture welcoming India as an interlocutor on the Tamil issue.' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The party is looking at Amit Shah's visit to Tamil Nadu and the PM's to Sri Lanka to boost its expansions efforts in the state for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, reports Archis Mohan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India attaches "paramount importance" to strengthening relations with countries in the Indian Ocean region, which is vital for its security and progress.
Dr Anil Jasinghe, Director General of the Health Services, said the larger death toll was released as a result of a calculation error.
The residents near the dump had been protesting for months, demanding that the garbage dump be relocated. The authorities, however, claim that they had given enough warning to the slum dwellers to relocate themselves.
'What happened last Sunday is a great tragedy, an insult to humanity'
Several people succumbed to their injuries sustained in the blasts, taking the death toll to 359.
The visit and the agenda is mainly to re-emphasise the traditional connect between India and Sri Lanka, particularly in the context of Buddhism, which is a shared heritage.
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