The country has been without a Parliament since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sacked the Assembly in March and then postponed elections scheduled for April citing the COVID-19 outbreak.
Representational image (Photo: IStock)
Sri Lankans on Wednesday began voting in Parliamentary elections twice delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Voters have been asked to maintain social distancing and bring their own pens to the polls “with special booths set up for those who are quarantining ” for a contest that will end months of constitutional limbo in Sri Lanka, according to the media reports.
The country has been without a Parliament since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sacked the Assembly in March and then postponed elections scheduled for April citing the COVID-19 outbreak.
Advertisement
Earlier in May, the Sri Lankan government aimed at total relaxation of the curfew restrictions imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parliament’s term was to end in September but the president has the power to dissolve it six months ahead of schedule, and also to reconvene it in an emergency.
The government imposed curfew restrictions in March after the corona cases escalated.
The first Sri Lankan national infected with the disease was reported on March 11.
Sri Lanka has reported 2,834 coronavirus cases including eleven deaths.
Advertisement
