Sri Lanka's president dissolved the parliament Tuesday, setting the stage for new elections a day after authorities arrested the leader of the opposition - a move analysts said was meant to prevent him from contesting the vote. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's decision follows his sweeping victory at the polls last month over his former army chief General Sarath Fonseka who had defected to the opposition.
Fonseka, who last year led government troops in their crushing defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels, was dragged out of his office Monday by military police and arrested on charges he plotted to overthrow the government while running the army. He has repeatedly denied similar accusations lobbed at him since the election.
One-time allies, Fonseka and Rajapaksa were both considered heroes by Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority for ending the quarter-century civil war. However, their relationship deteriorated after hostilities ended, and Fonseka led the opposition's attempts to unseat the president in an election last month. Rajapaksa won the election by 17 percentage points. The new parliamentary poll will choose the country's next 225 lawmakers, said a senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. No date has been set.
If the presidential poll is anything to go by, the contest will be another bitter race between the government and the opposition. Rajapaksa's party is hoping to secure a two-third majority in the country's parliament, giving them the absolute majority and entrenching their grip on power.
Fonseka's arrest leaves a mix of opposition parties - from ultranationalist Sinhalese Marxists to former Tamil separatists - in a difficult spot. Fonseka's wife Anoma Fonseka said Tuesday the former army chief has been cut off from family and friends and is being held at a secret location, though the government denied that. Fonseka's wife, Anoma, told reporters Tuesday that she has not been allowed to meet her husband or told where he is being held. "He was dragged like an animal," Anoma said. "Is this what he gets for ending a 30-year war?"