Parliament to be dissolved tonight

• An interim cabinet of four ministers to be appointed today
• Dr. Harini Amarasuriya to be appointed as PM
• Parliamentary Election to be held in December

By JAMILA HUSAIN and AJITH SIRIWARDENA

Parliament will be dissolved tonight and a Parliamentary Election will be held by December, the Daily Mirror exclusively learns.

Following the resignation of Dinesh Gunawardena as the Prime Minister yesterday, a senior source from the National People’s Power (NPP) said that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will today appoint an interim cabinet of four ministers, including himself, where 15 portfolios will be divided within them.

According to a list exclusively obtained by the Daily Mirror, President Dissanayake will keep the Tourism, Defence, Finance, Justice, Industry and Investment Promotion portfolios while the Prime Minister will become the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education, and Mass Media among others.

NPP MP Dr. Harini Amarasuriya will be sworn in as the Prime Minister while senior MP Vijitha Herath and newly sworn-in MP Lakshman Nipuna Arachchi will be appointed as ministers with several portfolios each.

Nipuna Arachchi took his oaths as an MP yesterday, filling the vacancy created by Anura Kumara Dissanayake in the Colombo electorate.

Sources from the NPP camp said that a Parliamentary election will be held after two months, that is in December, and after the President dissolves Parliament he will set the date as to when nominations will be called. After this date, the Elections Commission will give a period of 10 to 17 days to call for nominations.

After President Dissanayake dissolves Parliament, he will also announce the date of when the new Parliament will convene after the Parliamentary Election, which is likely to be in January.

President Dissanayake who was sworn in as the 9th Executive President yesterday morning following his victory in the Presidential Election met the tri-forces commanders for a meeting soon after and then his senior party members.

He then travelled to the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy to seek blessings and then travelled to Tambuttegama to see his aged mother.

The Daily Mirror learns that after he dissolves Parliament tonight the NPP will plan to begin their campaign for the Parliamentary Election.

If the NPP wins the Parliamentary Election in December, the Daily Mirror learns that the MP who has won the highest number of votes from his or her electorate and who wins the highest support among the government parliamentarians will be appointed as the new Prime Minister.