Call for new poll in Sri Lanka

– Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa called yesterday for parliament to be dissolved and fresh elections to be held after a party backed by him won local council polls in the strongest rebuff yet to the unity government.

Rajapaksa, who crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels in a 26-year civil war before he was ousted in 2015, said the ruling coalition government had lost the people’s confidence. –