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Sri Lanka PM, 44 ex-MPs defect from party led by president ahead of election

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COLOMBO, (Reuters) - Sri Lanka’s new prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and 44 former lawmakers have defected from the party led by President Maithripal­a Sirisena, splitting with the president barely two weeks after he installed Rajapaksa in office.

Sirisena dissolved parliament on Friday night and called a general election for Jan. 5 in a move that has drawn internatio­nal criticism as it is likely to deepen the country’s political crisis.

An intense power struggle has erupted in Sri Lanka in the past two weeks following Sirisena’s sudden sacking of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesi­nghe and the appointmen­t of former leader Rajapaksa, a pro-China strongman, in his place.

Rajapaksa and 44 former lawmakers of the Sirisenale­d centre-left Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on Sunday joined Sri Lanka Podujana Peremuna (SLPP), a political party formed in 2016 by Rajapaksa’s younger brother Basil, a former economy minister.

An SLPP source said 65 out of 82 former SLFP MPs will eventually join the new party.

Namal Rajapaksa, an ex-lawmaker and son of Rajapaksa, said the SLFP’s policies had not been pursued by Sirisena in the coalition government with the Wickremesi­nghe-led centre-right United National Party (UNP).

“We all decided that this is the right time to join the SLPP,” he told Reuters.

The SLPP recorded a landslide victory in local polls in February after Rajapaksa backed it. He did that while remaining in the SLFP.

Sirisena’s allies have told Reuters that he wants a SLFP-led government. However, the defections will weaken Sirisena’s more than seven-decade old party, they say.

Rohana Piyadaya, the SLFP secretary general declined to comment on the defections.

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