Sri Lankan president dissolves parliament, calls for November 14 polls

ISTANBUL: Sri Lanka's newly-elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake dissolved the 225-seated parliament late Tuesday and called for general elections on Nov 14.

Anadolu Agency reported that a notification by the presidential office said nominations for the new parliament would be from Oct 4-11.

The outgoing parliament was elected in 2020 and new elections were due by the following August.

Known as AKD, the Sinhalese politician defeated outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa in last weekend's elections and took the oath of office Monday as Sri Lanka's ninth executive president.

AKD chose prominent public intellectual and academic Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister earlier Tuesday and named a small Cabinet until new elections are held.

AKD is expected to address the nation Wednesday, to roll out his policies.

"The priority is the welfare of the people of Sri Lanka where over 50 percent of the population, some 12 million, live under economic vulnerability," AKD's senior aide Bimal Rathnayake told Anadolu on Monday.

The elections on Saturday were the first since Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in April 2022.

AKD is "expected to reduce prices of goods by reducing some indirect taxes and he is planning to reduce oil and electricity prices to give some sort of boost to the economy and then only the business and entrepreneurs will think to start new businesses," said Bimal.

-- BERNAMA

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