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Sri Lanka: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to name new prime minister
Sri Lanka
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Sri Lanka: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to name new prime minister

| @indiablooms | 12 May 2022, 12:32 pm

Colombo: Troubled Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is likely to name a new prime minister on Thursday in a bid to steer the debt-ridden country out of grave economic crisis after days of violence, Khaleej Times reported.

Former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe is the frontrunner to head a “unity government” with cross-party support in the 225-member parliament and replace Rajapaksa's elder brother Mahinda who stepped down on Monday.

“A swearing-in is likely today unless there is a last-minute hiccup,” a senior official close to the president said.

In a televised address to the nation, Rajapaksa had stopped short of yielding to weeks of nationwide protests calling for him to resign and promised the formation of a new unity government and bring about certain constitutional changes.

The main opposition SJB party was initially invited to lead a new government, but its leader Sajith Premadasa insisted that the president first step down, then about a dozen MPs from the SJB pledged support to Wickremesinghe, 73, who has been prime minister for five times since 1993 and is seen as a pro-West free-market reformist.

Wickremesinghe is the only legislator from his United National Party (UNP) which was routed at the August 2020 election that gave Rajapaksa a two-thirds majority.

(With UNI inputs)

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