Dinesh Gunawardena, a lawmaker and a politician is going to be Sri Lanka’s PM. President Wickremesinghe chose him as the new Prime Minister.
Four political sources on Thursday said Dinesh Gunawardena is going to be appointed as Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the new President, is going to appoint him as the PM to save the island from its worsening economic crisis.
Dinesh Gunawardena is a senior politician, lawmaker and also a loyalist of the preceding government Rajapaksa.
The new President is then going to headway by appointing its cabinet ministers on Friday. He was sworn in as the President on Thursday, amid huge protests.
Despite receiving people’s huge dissent to leave the post President Wickremesinghe(then the Prime Minister) stood undeterred.
He is summoning all parties to come together jointly and work to cope with this national economic crisis.
Opposition parties are yet to decide on this. An opposition leader Sajith Premadasa soon after a party leader’s meeting tweeted: “Met with President @RW_UNP [Ranil Wickremesinghe] at the party leaders’ meeting today. Had a cordial and frank exchange of ideas. Reiterated the Opposition’s determination to provide constructive support to avert misery and disaster.” The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB or United People’s Force) Leader said he proposed to strengthen the committee system in Parliament to achieve national consensus “rather than dishing out ministerial portfolios to political opportunists resulting in a drain of scarce natural resources.”
Meanwhile, the cabinet ministers who were earlier will carry on their functionalities. This set will be sworn in on Friday to not let the work be hampered. Once the consensus would be built from all the parties then the cabinet reshuffling will transpire, said a source(with anonymity).
Ranil Wickremesinghe sworn in as the President of the Country
Ranil Wickremesinghe who has been the Prime Minister of the country to the sixth legit term. With the Sixth being the May term when the country was in huge debt.
He rose to be Acting President amid massive protests which compelled the former President Gotabaya Rajpaksha to flee and ultimately resign just last week. Gotabaya flew to Singapore after the Maldives visit. However, even in Singapore, the leader has been granted only a temporary visit pass of 14 days, as stated by the immigration authorities.
On the other hand, Wickremesinghe became victorious in a parliamentary vote held on Wednesday after which he was sworn in as the President.
Protestors led accusations that he is a companion of Rajpaksha and he aspires to save them. Many claimed the purpose of him being the President. In response to this, he asserted “How am I a friend to the Rajapaksas? How can you say that? I have been opposing them always. I am not a friend of the Rajapaksas. Adding on, he claimed “I am a friend of the people” and that he would give the required “change” the people of his country wants.
On the Day
On Thursday, very few people were standing outside the complex which had earlier been stormed by the demonstrators. The Presidential Secretariat witnessed only a few people’s presence. The group which was largely protesting against him was also found silent.
Earlier, a group was protesting against him and claimed to not let him come to power. Still, some have declared to fight against Wickremesinghe.
Recent New Developments
This weekend, Sri Lanka received fresh diesel supplies and the main state-run distributor Ceylon Petroleum Limited will restart its distributions and sales on Thursday, the power and energy Minister asserted.
