Sri Lanka’s newly appointed President Anura Kumara Disanayake signed a special gazette notification on Tuesday to dissolve the Parliament. Officials gave this information. Parliament will be considered dissolved from Tuesday midnight and elections will be held on November 14. Before the presidential election in Sri Lanka on Saturday, Disanayake had said that he would dissolve the Parliament immediately and order mid-term elections. Earlier, the last Parliament was formed in August 2020. It has been dissolved 11 months before the scheduled time.
This move is considered an important effort towards fulfilling his election promise, in which he promised to change the decades-long rule of political families in Sri Lanka. According to a special gazette notification, the dissolution of Parliament will be effective from 12 o’clock tonight and new elections will be held on November 14. Sri Lanka’s Parliament was last convened in August 2020. Although the term of Parliament was till August 2025, it has been ended 11 months earlier.
Sri Lanka is now slowly recovering from its biggest economic crisis, which hit the South Asian country in 2020. At that time, millions of Sri Lankan citizens protested against then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Thousands of protesters stormed the Presidential Palace in Colombo, after which Mr. Rajapaksa had to flee the country. Then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took power and brought stability to Sri Lanka’s economy as well as peace back to the streets. Last week, Sri Lanka held elections for the first time since the economic crisis and millions of people voted for change.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected president with the support of the people, who ran a strong campaign against corruption and promised to end corruption, end nepotism, strengthen the economy, reduce inflation and carry out major reforms. “I pledge my dedication to protect and preserve democracy. I am taking office at a challenging time,” Dissanayake, 55, said during his inaugural address at the President’s Office in Colombo. “Our politics must be cleaned up and the people have demanded a different political culture. I am committed to that change,” he said in his maiden speech.
