Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday sacked the nation's parliament on Friday, hours after his party announced that he did not have a majority to get his prime minister through the legislature.
Sirisena signed an official notification dismissing the 225-member assembly with effect from midnight, clearing the way for a snap election nearly two years ahead of schedule.
The island nation was plunged into a constitutional crisis on October 26 when President a Sirisena fired his former ally Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa, an ex-president he defeated in a 2015 presidential election.
The turmoil was exacerbated by Sirisena's subsequent decision to also suspend parliament until November 16.
The political crises in Sri Lanka took an ugly turn on October 28 when bodyguards of cricketer-turned-politician Arjuna Ranatunga, a Wickremesinghe loyalist fired live rounds at the supporters of the new premier Mahinda Rajapaksa, leaving one person dead.
