New Delhi: Sri Lanka’s former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been appointed to lead the country again, news agency PTI reported.
The debt-ridden island nation, in the throes of the worst economic crisis, saw the back of last premier Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday, who put in his papers to contain some of the overpowering dissent against the government’s bungling of the country’s economic affairs.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, the 73-year-old United National Party (UNP) leader, held talks with Mahinda’s brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on Wednesday, according to a Colombo newspaper.
Wickremesinghe has just one seat in the 225-member Parliament.
The four-time former Prime Minister, however, has the support of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), a section of the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and several other parties, reports said. The support is likely to get him a majority in the House.
The UNP, the oldest party in the country, won just one seat in the last parliamentary polls in 2020.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in an address to the nation on Wednesday night, refused to quit but promised a new Prime Minister and Cabinet by this week.
He said the Prime Minister would be someone who “commanded the confidence of the majority of parliamentarians as well as the people”, ‘The Island’ reported.
On the demand to curb the powers of the President, Rajapaksa said: “Some people have asked for the abolition of the executive presidency. I will also make room for that after discussing with all stakeholders. The country is facing a serious crisis and I urge your support to keep the state machinery going.”
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