Sri Lanka's Parliament dissolved ahead of election on April 25

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has issued a special gazette notice, dissolving the Parliament and declaring parliamentary elections to be held on April 25.

In the special gazette released by the Presidential Secretariat on Monday, Rajapaksa dissolved the Parliament from Monday midnight and summoned a new parliament to meet on May 14, Xinhua reported.

The gazette also said that the nomination period for the upcoming elections will be held between March 12 and March 19, where nominees can file their nomination papers to election officers.

Sri Lanka's Parliament is being dissolved after four and a half years, which is the legal limit, paving the way for polls to elect 225 members in the House.

During the dissolution period, the country will be run by a caretaker government with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and a cabinet of ministers, local media reports quoting political experts said, while all state ministers and deputy ministers will lose their posts.

An estimated 16 million people are expected to cast their votes in the April elections.