Sri Lanka president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to name a new prime minister today to help steer the island nation past an economic crisis and days of horrific violence that has claimed the lives of at least eight people so far.
Five-time former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe is seen as the frontrunner for the post that was formerly held by the president's brother - Mahinda Rajapaksa who quit Monday amid violent protests in Colombo. Wickremesinghe (if named) will likely be at the head of a 'unity' government with cross-party support in the 225-member Sri Lanka parliament.
The United National Party (UNP) leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka tomorrow (12) or the day after (13), Lankadeepa reports.
UNP chairman Vajira Abeywardena has said that Ranil Wickremesinghe will be able to get a majority in parliament after being sworn in as the new Prime Minister.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe had a discussion last night regarding resolving the crisis in the country and a discussion is scheduled to be held on Friday morning as well.
Sri Lankans are desperate as basic items like food and fuel run out or become unaffordable.
Its dire financial situation has caused the Sri Lankan rupee to plunge, provoking severe shortages of basic items such as food, fuel and medical supplies.
The government blames the Covid pandemic, which all but killed off Sri Lanka's tourist trade - one of its biggest foreign currency earners.
It also says tourists were frightened off by a series of deadly bomb attacks on churches three years ago.
However, many experts say economic mismanagement is to blame.
The political stalemate comes as Sri Lanka attempts to iron out a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - the island's $81bn economy is near bankruptcy.
It has suspended its foreign debt payments, largely because it cannot service loans from China that paid for massive infrastructure projects.
While the pandemic hit the vital tourism sector and shrank Sri Lanka's earnings and foreign exchange reserves, experts say problems have been exacerbated by populist tax cuts in 2019 and a disastrous ban on chemical fertilisers in 2021 that devastated crop yields.
Wickremesinghe's coalition alliance, the United National Front for Good Governance, won the 2015 parliamentary election with 106 seats. Although it fell short of an outright majority, Wickremesinghe was re-elected as Prime Minister with over 35 Sri Lanka Freedom Party members joining his cabinet.
Wickremesinghe was removed as Prime Minister on 26 October 2018 by President Maithripala Sirisena with the appointment of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister, which Wickremesinghe refused to accept, resulting in a constitutional crisis. The constitutional crisis ended with Sirisena re-appointing Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister on 16 December 2018.
He resigned as Prime Minister on 20 November 2019, and was again succeed by Mahinda Rajapaksa following the 2019 presidential election. He contested the following parliamentary elections in 2020, but failed to secure a seat in Parliament.
He re-entered Parliament as a National List MP of the United National Party, and was sworn in as a member of parliament on the 23rd of June 2021.
