President does U-turn to ease stalemate after sacking PM
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s president has reappointed Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister, nearly two months after firing him and triggering a political stalemate in the South Asian island nation.
The move promises to ease the crisis, but could also be the start of a difficult alliance between Mr Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena, who are in now rival camps.
Mr Wickremesinghe’s United National Party said on its official Twitter account that he took the oath before Mr Sirisena. The swearing in took place privately, with only a few politicians in attendance.
“Now I will assume duties of the office of prime minister,” Mr Wickremesinghe told supporters after he was sworn in.
“Unfortunately, during the past few weeks, the progress of this country and the development programmes that we undertook were stalled,” he said.
“Not only that, the country went backward. Today we commit firstly to bring back normalcy and resuming the development programme.”
Mr Sirisena abruptly dismissed Mr Wickremesinghe in October and appointed former president Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place.
Mr Wickremesinghe insisted his removal was unlawful. Mr Rajapaksa failed to gain Parliament’s approval, losing two no-confidence votes.