Sri Lanka PM, 44 ex-MPs defect from party

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and 44 former lawmakers have defected from the party led by President Maithripala Sirisena, splitting with the president barely two weeks after he installed Rajapaksa in office. Sirisena dissolved parliament on Friday night and called a general election for Jan. 5 in a move that has drawn international criticism as it is likely to deepen the country’s political crisis. An intense power struggle has erupted in Sri Lanka in the past two weeks following Sirisena’s sudden sacking of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the appointment of former leader Rajapaksa, a pro-China strongman, in his place. Rajapaksa and 44 former lawmakers of the Sirisena-led center-left Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on Sunday joined Sri Lanka Podujana Peremuna (SLPP), a political party formed in 2016 by Rajapaksa’s younger brother Basil, a former economy minister.