Parliament to be dissolved tonight

• President expected to issue relevant Gazette notification within next few hours
• Under 19A, President can dissolve Parliament at end of 4-and-a-half years of Parliament’s 5-year term
• Election expected on 25 April
• 196 MPs will be directly elected to 225 Legislature while 29 will be appointed through the National List

By Chandani Kirinde

The term of the eighth legislature will end at midnight with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issuing the relevant Gazette notification dissolving the Parliament.

The President is constitutionally empowered to dissolve Parliament at the end of the four and half years of its five-year term, which ends at midnight today.

The Election is expected to be held on 25 April even though the Election Commission said it could be any time between 52-66 days from the date of dissolution of the House. 

The first meeting of the eighth Parliament was held on 1 September 2015 after the General Election held on 17 August. The United National Party won 106 seats in the 225 Legislature while the United People›s Freedom Alliance won 95 seats.The Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) won 16 seats; the People›s Liberation Front (JVP) won six seats; while the Eelam People›s Democratic Party and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress won one seat each.

The 2015 General Election was the first to be held after the enactment of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which saw the term of Parliament reduced from six years to five years.

A total of 16,263,885 are eligible to vote at this year’s Parliamentary Election, about 270,000 more than those who were registered to vote at last November’s Presidential Poll, EC Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said.

The 2019 electoral list will be used for the election while for November’s Presidential Poll, the 2018 list was used. A total of 196 MPs will be directly elected from the 25 districts to Parliament while 29 will be appointed from the National List.