(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake dissolved the nation’s parliament with effect midnight Tuesday and called for early elections, framing his decision as steps toward combating corruption and renegotiating a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
In a special gazette, the president ordered for the parliamentary election to be held on Nov. 14. The new legislature is to meet on Nov. 21.
Dissanayake, 55, a leftist political outsider, won the presidential race on Sept. 21. His victory was a stunning rebuke of Sri Lanka’s political elite, which voters blamed for leading the island nation into a historic economic crisis a couple of years ago.
Dissanayake, popularly known as AKD, won 5.74 million votes after two rounds of counting in the country’s first-ever runoff, defeating opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, who came in second, as well as incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who helped broker the IMF loan program.
Dissanayake leads the National People’s Power, a coalition of leftist political parties and groups backed by protesters responsible for ousting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022. The NPP has just three parliamentarians in Sri Lanka’s 225-seat legislature.
Earlier on Tuesday, Dissanayake chose Harini Amarasuriya from his coalition as the nation’s new prime minister and appointed a three-member cabinet, including himself, from among his party.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena resigned from his post on Monday, thereby dissolving the previous cabinet and allowing Dissanayake to make his appointments. The same day, Dissanayake also chose a replacement for his own seat in the parliament.
Under its constitution, Sri Lanka must hold parliamentary elections by the middle of 2025. And in the nation’s executive system, the president can hold multiple cabinet portfolios.
Dissanayake leads a party that was once known for violent Marxist uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s, but has since renounced those tactics. The incoming president has positioned himself as a center-left figure.
In his inaugural speech, Dissanayake said he was fully committed to democracy during his five-year term.
“We have got a very challenging country. Our policies have to be clearer. People expect a cleaner culture,” Dissanayake said on Monday. “We are ready to commit to that.”
--With assistance from Asantha Sirimanne.
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