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| Sri Lanka |
| Sri Lankan president to dissolve parliament |
| 2010-01-29 |
| Rre-elected Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will soon dissolve the country's parliament and call for legislative elections. The date of the proposed election is unclear; however, the current parliament's term will be up in April. The announcement came a day after the 64-year-old politician won his second war in a year, crushing an electoral challenge by former army chief General Sarath Fonseka who broke ranks with him just months after they claimed victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Fonseka, who claimed the election was rigged in favor of the incumbent president, said at a news conference in Colombo on Thursday that his name was blacklisted. He said authorities harassed members of his political team and arrested some of his associates. Information Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, however, denied Fonseka's claims that the authorities had put his name and passport number on a blacklist, preventing him from leaving the country. |
| Posted by:Fred |