Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday dissolved Parliament six months ahead of its schedule and called a snap election on April 25.

He signed the Gazette notification dissolving Parliament from midnight tonight, the Government Printers Department said.

The current parliament was appointed on September 1, 2015.

Gotabaya sacked Parliament after the minimum term of four-and-a-half years necessary to dissolve it was completed on midnight Sunday.

According to the notification, elections will be held on April 25 and the new Parliament will have its first session on May 14.

The political parties and independent candidates can file nominations to contest the poll between March 12 and 19.

Over 16.2 million voters are eligible to vote to elect 196 members under proportional representation and a further 29 members on national cumulative votes of each party based on proportional representation.

President Rajapaksa, who named his elder brother and former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa as the prime minister of the caretaker cabinet in December, earlier said he wanted two-third seats in the 225-member assembly.

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.

With PTI and IANS inputs