Sri Lanka could face snap parliamentary election in November

Colombo: Sri Lanka could face a snap parliamentary election in November with new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Monday saying the current Parliament would be dissolved in two days.

Top election official Saman Sri Ratnayake said the election could be held between 52-66 days from the date of the dissolution of the Parliament. The next parliamentary election is due by August next year.

The Marxist leader said in the central Sri Lankan town of Kandy that the current Parliament’s mandate had expired and upon his win, he would immediately dissolve parliament.

Dissanayake, 56, was sworn in as Sri Lanka's ninth president by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya at the Presidential Secretariat on Monday.

His swearing-in came hours after Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena resigned from his post as part of a power transition in the country following the presidential election.

Gunawardena, 75, was prime minister since July 2022.

Gunawardene, in a letter addressed to Dissanayake, said he is resigning from the post as a new President has been elected and that he would create the environment to appoint a new Cabinet.

Dissanayake said he wanted a new assembly to push through his National People’s Power (NPP) reform agenda.

The new NPP member to replace Dissanayake in Parliament was gazetted today and with his appointment the new government is to appoint a four-member cabinet. The caretaker cabinet would remain until the election.

The cabinet appointment is to take place tomorrow, government sources said.

The last election for the 225-member Parliament House was held in August 2020.

Dissanayake, the leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party's broader front National People’s Power (NPP), defeated his closest rival Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) in Saturday's presidential election.

The election was the first to be held since mass protests unseated Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 after the country suffered an economic crisis.