Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa dissolved Parliament on Monday six months ahead of its schedule. The new election date is set as April 25, where he would aim to secure a strong majority which in turn will enable him to push for constitutional changes to increase presidential powers.

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

The parliament had been appointed on September 1, 2015.

President Rajapaksa sacked Parliament after the minimum term of four-and-a-half years necessary to dissolve it was completed at midnight on 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 filing of nominations for the political parties and independent candidates will begin on March 12 and end on March 19.

More then 16.2 million voters would be electing 196 members in the Parliament 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 Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka’s caretaker cabinet in December, had earlier said he wanted two-thirds seats in the 225-member assembly.