President Anura Kumara Dissanayake picks a 21-member cupboard as he plans sweeping reforms, together with a marketing campaign promise of a brand new structure.
Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has reappointed educationist Harini Amarasuriya because the nation’s prime minister after sweeping the snap parliamentary elections final week.
Dissanayake on Monday picked a 21-member cupboard, retaining the important thing defence and finance portfolios as he plans sweeping reforms, together with a marketing campaign promise of a brand new structure, and to combat corruption in a nation recovering from its worst financial disaster.
A nation of twenty-two million, Sri Lanka was crushed by the disaster triggered by a extreme scarcity of overseas foreign money that pushed it right into a sovereign default and prompted its financial system to shrink by 7.3 p.c in 2022 and a couple of.3 p.c final yr. The nation has been present process a monetary programme by the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF) following the default.
The swearing-in ceremony of the brand new cupboard, which was telecast reside, befell on the Presidential Secretariat within the capital, Colombo.
Amarasuriya, 54, can even maintain the ministries of training, increased training in addition to vocational coaching. She was first appointed because the prime minister in September to serve within the interim authorities after Dissanayake received the presidential election, making her the primary girl to go the nationwide authorities in 24 years.
Veteran legislator Vijitha Herath has been appointed the overseas minister. Ananda Wijepala is the brand new public safety and parliamentary affairs minister, whereas Bimal Rathnayake has been tapped as transport, highways, ports and civil aviation minister.
A political outsider in a rustic dominated by household events for many years, Dissanayake’s left-leaning Nationwide Folks’s Energy (NPP) coalition had simply three seats in parliament, prompting him to dissolve it and search a brand new mandate in final week’s vote.
The NPP received a landslide majority in Thursday’s parliamentary election, securing 159 seats within the 225-member home – representing a snug two-thirds majority. The principle opposition, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), underneath its chief Sajith Premadasa, received simply 40 seats.
It was the primary time since 1977 – when Sri Lanka modified its parliamentary system to proportional illustration – {that a} single celebration has received a transparent majority. Additionally it is the primary time the incumbent president has the numbers wanted to go laws in parliament with no need to depend on any allies or coalition companions.
With a two-thirds majority, Dissanayake, 55, can now amend the structure. The NPP had promised a referendum on a brand new structure.
“We should be sure that this absolute energy doesn’t corrupt us completely,” Dissanayake instructed on the swearing-in ceremony.
“This big energy that has been given to us have to be exercised with accountability, to fulfil the aspirations of the individuals who had been oppressed economically and politically for too lengthy.”
The brand new authorities holds its first parliamentary sitting on Thursday. It’s anticipated to arrange a price range for 2025 according to the continuing IMF bailout secured by the earlier authorities. An IMF delegation is on a weeklong journey to the island nation to carry talks with the brand new authorities in addition to conduct a 3rd evaluation of Sri Lanka’s financial reform programme of $2.9bn.
