President Maithripala Sirisena explained his reason to dissolve the parliament in late June, saying that he wanted to undermine attempts to bring former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to parliament through the national list.

Giving a special statement, Sirisena said that he had to protect the government from the no confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

If the no-confidence motion was passed, the government would have fallen.

The opposition MPs had demanded that the no-confidence motion be taken. They had further argued that if the government had fallen, a UPFA MP should be appointed as Prime Minister.

President Sirisena today explained that there was a plan to bring the former President to parliament through vthe national list in such an event. He took the decision to dissolve parliament so that the government does not fall at that time, he said.