Ranil Wickremesinghe will be sworn-in as Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister tomorrow morning, returning to the office for a fourth term, United National Party (UNP) Media Sources told Fast News. The ceremony will take place at the Presidential Secretariat.
Mr Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) coalition won 106 seats in Monday’s parliamentary election, just 7 short of a simple majority in the 225-member assembly but enough to form a government.
“We will also form the Cabinet thereafter,” former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said.
A group of Sirisena supporters is likely to join a broad-based national unity government led by Mr Wickremesinghe.
Mr Wickremesinghe became prime minister for the first time in May 1993, when a suicide bomber assassinated President Ranasinghe Premadasa. He got his second chance in 2002.
Addressing a gathering yesterday, Mr Wickremesinghe said he will continue the mandate for good governance given in parliamentary polls and work together with all parties in a national government for 2-3 years.
“The parliamentary elections of August 17 confirm the January 8 revolution,” he said, referring to the presidential election held in January which ousted the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. “We can’t turn back.”
Mr Wickremesinghe, a nephew of Sri Lanka’s first executive president, said he will build a consensus on the new government’s national policy.
