Lankan President rules out early poll

Colombo, November 23

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday rejected the opposition’s demand for early parliamentary elections and vowed to use the military to crush any future anti-government protests aimed at regime change.

Wickremesinghe, 73, who took over as the President of Sri Lanka in July this year after then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Colombo in the face of the country’s worst economic crisis since 1948, said that he will not dissolve the parliament until the economic crisis is resolved.

“I will not dissolve parliament early until the economic crisis can be resolved,” he said while speaking in Parliament.

Wickremesinghe has a mandate to serve out the rest of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in November 2024. However, the opposition parties are demanding early parliamentary elections, claiming that Wickremesinghe’s government lacks electoral credibility. The next presidential election is scheduled to be held in 2024.

The president said a radical political party named Frontline Socialist Party was behind the protests for their political benefits. — PTI

Will deploy military to stop protests

They can call me a dictator but must obtain police permission to stage protests. I will deploy the military and use emergency laws to stop the protests. — R Wickremesinghe, SL President