Sri Lanka will hold a parliamentary election on Nov. 14, the government announced on Tuesday, less than two months after the Indian Ocean island nation elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake as its new president.

Ms Amarasuriya, 54, is the first woman in more than two decades and the only third woman in the history of independent Sri Lanka to take charge as the prime minister. She is a sociology lecturer and known for her activism on gender and minority rights.

Sri Lanka's new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has dissolved parliament to make way for a snap general election. He dissolved the 225-member parliament in which his National People's Power alliance had just three seats.