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Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa to dissolve parliament soon: Reports

WION Web Team
Colombo, Sri LankaUpdated: Mar 02, 2020, 06:16 PM IST
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A file photo of Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Photograph:(Reuters)

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Gotabaya's brother Mahinda, is expected to lead the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP, or People's Front) party to a comfortable victory as per experts.

Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is set to dissolve parliament shortly and call snap a legislative election six months ahead of schedule, according to media reports.

He is expected to exercise his constitutional power to sack the assembly when it completes four-and-a-half out of its five-year term.

"The Gazette Extraordinary will be issued announcing the dissolution of the present parliament at the end of the completion of four-and-a-half years in terms of the provisions of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution," media sources claimed.

Gotabaya has publicly declared that he wants a two-third majority in the parliament.

This would empower him to make sweeping changes to the country and the constitution.

Rajapaksa, 70, won a landslide at November presidential polls and appointed his older brother and former president Mahinda as prime minister in a move that saw the family consolidate their hold on power.

A general election is most likely in the final week of April if the 225-member national assembly is dissolved by Monday as widely expected.

Gotabaya's brother Mahinda, who had been president twice and prime minister thrice, is expected to lead the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP, or People's Front) party to a comfortable victory as per experts.

Prime Minister Rajapaksa announced last month that the country was withdrawing from a UN resolution investigating alleged war crimes in 2009, a move that was seen as boosting his popularity with the Sinhalese majority.