Sri Lanka heads for snap polls
Sri Lanka's new president is set to dissolve parliament shortly and call snap a legislative election six months ahead of schedule, a state-run newspaper said yesterday.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to exercise his constitutional power to sack the assembly when it completes four-and-a-half out of its five-year term on Sunday night, the Sunday Observer said.
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.
Official sources told AFP that a general election was most likely in the final week of April if the 225-member national assembly is dissolved by Monday as widely expected.
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. Political commentators have said it would be a formidable challenge for the opposition to prevent Rajapaksa securing a two-thirds majority which will allow him sweeping powers to govern the nation.
The Rajapaksas are adored by the Sinhala-Buddhist majority -- but loathed among minority Tamils -- for spearheading the defeat of separatist militants in 2009 to end the island's 37-year ethnic war.
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