Picture : Twitter/ ANI
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn-in as Sri Lanka’s new prime minister, days after his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned following violent protests over the worst economic crisis in the debt-ridden island nation.
He first became Prime Minister after the assassination of President Premadasa on May 1, 1993. He took the position again in 2000 and 2015.
The 73-year-old United National Party leader was appointed as the prime minister by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after they held closed-door discussions on Wednesday.
United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe sworn in as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. pic.twitter.com/6bCdDtAkFK
— ANI (@ANI) May 12, 2022
Wickremesinghe, who has served as the country’s prime minister for four times, was in October 2018 fired from the post of prime minister by then President Maithripala Sirisena. However, he was reinstalled as the prime minister by Sirisena after two months.
Members of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, a section of the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya and several other parties have expressed their support to show majority for Wickremesinghe in Parliament, sources said.
The UNP, the oldest party in the country, had failed to win a single seat from districts, including Wickremesinghe who contested from the UNP stronghold Colombo in the 2020 parliamentary polls.
He later found his way to Parliament through the sole national list allocated to the UNP on the basis of cumulative national vote. His deputy Sajith Premadasa had led the breakaway SJB and became the main Opposition.
