Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will make a special statement in Parliament today. He is likely to outline the policies and programmes to be implemented during the rest of the government’s term in his speech.

A cabinet minister said President Sirisena will speak of the successes and failures of the government in the last three years and measures to be taken to rectify anomalies in areas where the government has failed to deliver.

The parliament session will begin in the afternoon with a customary guard of honour to the President. Mr Sirisena prorogued Parliament on April 12 in wake of 16 ministers and MPs from his party deciding to resign after voting for a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The group of 16 have decided to sit as a separate opposition group in Parliament. The President’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has formed a national unity government with the Prime minister’s United National Party (UNP) but differences between both sides are in the open after Joint opposition led by former President Mahinda Rajapakse won the local body elections held in February.