Sri Lankan President dissolves parliament

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapksa has dissolved the parliament and called for general elections on 25th of next month. A gazette notification issued last night said nominations for elections will be received from 12th to 19th of this month.

The gazette was issued under powers vested with President to dissolve the parliament after four and a half years of its first sitting. The newly elected parliament will meet on 14th of May. The parliament term was ending in August but general elections was called as the current government led by Prime minister Mahinda Rajpaksa is a minority government and expects



to gain a majority in coming elections.

The previous government led by Ranil Wickremsinghe has resigned in November following defeat at the Presidential elections where Gotabaya was elected as President defeating Sajith Premadasa. Meanwhile, Mr. Premadasa launched a new political alliance yesterday comprising of five political parties including some members of  United National party (UNP) led by Ranil Wickremsinghe. There is no consensus for symbol of the alliance as UNP camp is divided between loyalists of Wickremsinghe and Premadasa.