<span style="color: #222222;">Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has ruled out reconvening of the dissolved Parliament. This was stated in his response to a letter by several opposition parties calling for reconvening of Parliament as the elections, scheduled for 25th April, was postponed in wake of COVID-19 crisis. The letter by President's secretary released today,  stated that the opposition has resorted to a narrow political agenda at a time when the entire government machinery is busy with containing the Covid-19 crisis. The letter also emphasized that that the requirement to abide by Article 70(7) of the Constitution does not arise. The article stipulates convening of new Parliament within three months of dissolution of Parliament. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Sri Lankan Parliament was dissolved by President on 2nd of March and the new Parliament was stipulated to meet before 2nd June as per the article. However, the government believe the article cannot be adhered to in view of extraordinary situation out of COVID crisis. The new date for elections have been scheduled for 20th of June but election commission has said the country is still not normal to hold an election. Commission chairman Mahinda Desapriya said there must be a minimum of 35 days prior to date of the poll for campaigning, etc. but there is no normalcy at the moment due to ongoing curfew and public meetings cannot be held.<br />'' <br />''Meanwhile, nine people tested positive of COVID today bringing the number of active cases to 507. There was a spurt of cases during past week as over 250 navy personnel deployed at Navy base in Welisara were tested positive.</span><br />