Sri Lanka: President Rajapaksa rejects opposition's call to reconvene parliament

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on April 30 declined a request from opposition parties to convene dissolved Parliament remarking that opposition was trying to make political gains at time of a pandemic. Sri Laka has till w reported a total of 671 cases and seven deaths. 

On March 2, Rajapaksha h dissolved country's parliament, six-months ahe of schedule. He h n called for a snap election on April 25 to elect a new 225 member house. However, election commission in mid-April postponed elections and scheduled it to take place on June 20 owing to COVID-19 pandemic. Following which, on April 27, country’s opposite parties urged Rajapaksha to summon dissolved parliament while pledging cooperation to tackle pandemic.

"We urge president to respond positively to this offer of responsible cooperation by us at this critical time and revoke proclamation dated 2 March 2020 dissolving parliament so that all of us can jointly fight to ericate this virus," said a joint statement issued by opposition parties.

Seven party leers involved

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However, a press statement released later by Sri Lankan leer stated that he h rejected opposition's call to reconvene house claiming that y were trying to make political gains. opposition consisted of seven parties including United National Party (UNP) leer Ranil Wickremesinghe, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leer R Sampanthan, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leer Rauff Hakeem, Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) leer Ma Ganesan, All Ceylon Makkal Congress leer Rishard Bathuideen, Jathika Hela Urumaya's (JHU) Patali Champika Ranawaka and former Opposition Leer Sajith Premasa.

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In or news, Sri Lankan government, in a bid to stem spre of coronavirus infection, stopped all passenger flights and ships entering nation on March 18. Till n, 71,370 tourists h alrey visited island nation, Sri Lankan media reported quoting Sir Lanka Tourist Development Authority’s Tourist Arrival reports, for March 2020. However, in comparison, country h received 2,44,328 tourists in 2019.

(With inputs from PTI/Im credits: AP)