Ranil Wickremesinghe was yesterday sworn in as Sri Lanka’s prime minister for another term after securing the backing of the nation’s second-biggest party for a new government of national unity.
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa agreed to enter a broad-based coalition government with Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP), although Rajapaksa is to remain on the opposition benches.
Details of the agreement were not immediately known, but the SLFP is expected to secure several portfolios in a Cabinet to be named on Monday.
Photo: AP
Wickremesinghe took the oath for a fourth term at his office in Colombo, overlooking the Indian Ocean, in a ceremony broadcast live on national television.
The UNP won the largest number of seats in Monday’s election, but fell short of a majority in the 225-member parliament.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which holds 16 seats, has said it would not join a coalition, but has promised the new government “issue-based” support.
Rajapaksa, who attended yesterday’s swearing in, had hoped to become prime minister himself.
However, he conceded on Tuesday that his dream had “faded away” after results showed a surge in voter support for Wickremesinghe’s UNP.
Rajapaksa, 69, suffered a surprise defeat in presidential elections in January, but remains popular among large sections of the majority Sinhalese community for presiding over a crushing defeat of Tamil separatist guerrillas.
He was succeeded as president by his former ally and health minister, Maithripala Sirisena, who appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister to push through a series of major reforms.
Sirisena wants to reverse many of the constitutional changes brought in by Rajapaksa, who awarded himself huge powers as president.
He called parliamentary elections a year ahead of schedule after members of parliament loyal to Rajapaksa consistently blocked the changes.
The new government is likely to introduce legislation to establish independent commissions to run the police, public service and judiciary.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not