COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s top court has rejected a controversial attempt to extend President Maithripala Sirisena’s term in office by an extra year, further souring the ruling party’s relations with its coalition partners, reports AFP.

Sirisena had asked the Supreme Court whether a limit on presidential terms, which he introduced in 2015 as part of measures to curb the power of the executive, applied to his own mandate.

His chief attorney general last week told the court that the constitutional provision reducing terms from six to five years would not apply to the incumbent.

But that position was unanimously rejected by the five-judge bench which ruled that Sirisena was not exempt from the law, official sources said.

“The Supreme Court has conveyed the opinion that the President’s term of office is five years,” Sirisena’s office said in a statement Monday.