President announces snap poll on January 5

Dissolution of assembly comes after an intense power struggle in the past two weeks

Parliament dissolved after two weeks of intense power struggle following sudden sacking of Wickremesinghe and the appointment of Rajapakse in his place |

Sri Lanka will hold a snap election in January, the country’s president announced yesterday, hours after dissolving parliament when it became clear his prime minister nominee did not have a majority.

Maithripala Sirisena said in a proclamation that a new parliament will be convened on January 17 after conducting the vote on January 5.

The election timetable was accompanied by an official notice dismissing the nation’s 225-member assembly with effect from midnight.

The dissolution comes after an intense power struggle in the past two weeks which followed Sirisena’s sudden sacking of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the appointment of former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, a pro-China strongman, in his place.

Following the sacking, the president suspended parliament in a move which Wickremesinghe said was intended to prevent the ousted prime minister from contesting the decision in the legislature.

Later Sirisena agreed to reconvene parliament on November 14 but that will now not happen.

Wickremesinghe has refused to vacate the official prime minister’s residence saying he is the prime minister and had a parliamentary majority.

“This is a gross violation of the constitution,” Harsha De Silva, a lawmaker in Wickremesinghe’s party, told Reuters in reference to the dissolution of parliament.

Independent legal experts had told Reuters that parliament could be dissolved only after four-and-a-half-years from the date of the August 2015 parliament election, either through a referendum, or with the consent of two thirds of lawmakers.

It was not immediately clear how Sirisena can legally dissolve parliament, though his legal experts have said there are provisions for him to do so.