The Seventh Parliament of Sri Lanka, which lasted a little more than five years, has been dissolved with immediate effect.
The country would face the general election on August 17, a senior official in the Government Printing Department told The Hindu , quoting an order issued by President Maithripala Sirisena.
The dissolution, which came into effect on the midnight of Friday, took place 10 months ahead of the completion of the present House. It also happened at a time when attempts are on to bring together two factions of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), headed by Mr Sirisena and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, to face the election.
When the present Parliament, under the 1978 Constitution, was formed in April 2010, Mr. Rajapaksa was President and D.M. Jayaratne became Prime Minister.
In the Presidential election in January 2015, Mr Rajapaksa was thrown out of power and he was succeeded by Mr Sirisena, the common Opposition candidate who had the support of a number of parties including the United National Party (UNP).
Mr Sirisena made Ranil Wickremesinghe Prime Minister even though the UNP’s strength was around 40 in the Parliament of 225. A faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and some other parties such as the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), or the National Heritage Party, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the National Union of Workers (NUW) have been part of the government in the last six months.
The dissolution has rendered redundant a gazette notification of the proposed 20th Amendment, envisaging electoral reforms. About a week, the notification on the electoral reforms was issued, seeking comments and objections of the public.
As per the 2014 data, Sri Lanka has about 1.5 crore electors. Even though the revision of electoral roll is in progress, this would come to a halt once the notification on the dissolution of Parliament and the date of polling had been issued, said Mahinda Deshapriya, Election Commissioner.
