Veteran lawmaker Vijitha Herath was reappointed to lead the foreign affairs ministry by Anura Kumara Dissanayake, whose communist coalition gained 159 seats in the 225-member parliament in the general election.
Harini Amarasuriya was reappointed as prime minister of the Indian Ocean island nation on Monday by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
During Monday’s swearing-in, Dissanayake did not appoint a new finance minister, indicating that he will continue to oversee the crucial finance portfolio himself, as he did in September following his victory in the presidential election.
Dissanayake, a political outsider in a nation where family parties have controlled politics for decades, easily won the September presidential election on the island, appointed Amarasuriya as prime minister, and selected Herath to lead foreign policy.
He decided to disband his National People’s Power (NPP) coalition and run for a new mandate in Thursday’s emergency election because it only held three seats in parliament.
As the broad mandate in general elections gave Dissanayake the legislative authority to enact his proposals to combat poverty and corruption in the island nation emerging from a financial crisis, the president leaned toward policy continuity.
The 2022 economic crisis that forced the 22 million-person nation into a sovereign default and caused its GDP to contract by 2.3% last year and 7.3% in 2022 was brought on by a severe shortage of foreign money.
Analysts said that although the strong mandate will improve political stability in the South Asian nation, there is still some ambiguity regarding the course of policy because of Dissanayake’s pledges to try to change the terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue program that helped the nation escape its economic crisis.
