UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of the interim government before President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa at the President’s House in Colombo this evening. Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the 26th Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
Following the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday evening, (May 09th) , due to the current political and economic crisis, the entire Cabinet was resigned. Following the PM’s resignation the President invited political parties to take over the government. Meanwhile Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe met the President yesterday and stated that he has the consent of the majority of Members of Parliament. According to sources, the Prime Minister will be sworn in today and a new Cabinet will be appointed soon after the appointment of the Prime Minister.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has been the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka five times before, entered politics as a youth in 1973 and contested for the UNP from the Biyagama electorate and was elected to Parliament at the General Election held on 1977. Mr. Wickremasinghe first held the post of Prime Minister in May 1993. That was after the sudden death of President Ranasinghe Premadasa and the appointment of then Prime Minister DB Wijetunga as President. He became the Prime Minister twice in 2003 and 2015 and became the Prime Minister for the fifth time with the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was elected illegally in the midst of the 52-day constitutional crisis that erupted in October 2018, following a Supreme Court decision. Accordingly, he was sworn in for the sixth time today.
