Rajapaksa swears in his brother as interim PM
Sri Lanka’s newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa swore in his brother, the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, as interim prime minister on Thursday.
United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe resigned as prime minister after his party’s candidate lost to Mr Rajapaksa in the election on Saturday. He said he was resigning to clear the way for the new president to form a government, respecting the mandate Mr Rajapaksa received.
A refusal to resign could have resulted in a stalemate because the president cannot sack the prime minister or appoint ministers without his advice.
Neither Mr Wickremesinghe’s party nor Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna have an absolute majority in parliament to form a government.
Mahinda Rajapaksa tried to return to office last year as prime minister but was blocked by a court.
The new president is expected to appoint a 15-member interim Cabinet. Government leaders said a parliamentary election would take place in April and Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to be his party’s prime ministerial candidate.
With Mahinda Rajapaksa being appointed prime minister, brothers hold the two top positions in Sri Lanka’s government for the first time.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa served as defence secretary when his brother was president from 2005 to 2015. Together, they are credited with ending a decades-long Tamil insurgency, but the military campaign was dogged by allegations of rights abuses against civilians from the minority community.
The recent presidential election was overshadowed by Sri Lanka’s deepest economic slump in more than 15 years, which developed after attacks on hotels and churches on Easter Sunday in which more than 250 people were killed. The attacks damaged Sri Lanka’s important tourism sector.
Gotabaya Rajapksa’s presidential campaign focused on securing the country against militant threats.
Some rights groups and minorities have expressed concerns of renewed ethnic tensions after his victory.
In a boost to his grip on power, a court on Thursday suspended a corruption case against Gotabaya Rajapaksa, citing constitutional provisions for presidential immunity. It also released his passport.