On March 3, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa dissolved Parliament and announced polls on April 25.
Many Opposition parties in Sri Lanka have called for postponing the general election scheduled for April 25, in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Their request comes a day after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa told SAARC leaders — who connected on a video call to discuss regional strategies to combat COVID 19 — that Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election will be held as scheduled.
Sri Lanka has so far 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus. The first case — a Chinese tourist who tested positive in February — has since recovered and returned to China while all other patients are currently undergoing treatment at government hospitals. One patient, officials said, had returned from Kerala recently.
Prominent Opposition politician Sajith Premadasa, who now leads an alliance of a faction of the United National Party (UNP), and its allies, urged the government to utilise funds allocated for polls to step up Sri Lanka’s resp