Sri Lanka’s new prime minister yesterday struggled to forge a unity government and forestall an imminent economic collapse, as opposition lawmakers refused to join his Cabinet and demanded fresh elections.
Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in late on Thursday to navigate his country through the worst downturn in its history as an independent nation, with months of shortages and blackouts inflaming public anger.
The 73-year-old insists that he has enough support to govern and approached several legislators to join him, but three opposition parties have already said his premiership lacks legitimacy.
Photo: AFP
Senior opposition lawmaker Harsha de Silva rejected an overture to take charge of the finance ministry and said he would instead push for the government’s resignation.
“People are not asking for political games and deals, they want a new system that will safeguard their future,” he said in a statement.
De Silva said that he was joining “the people’s struggle” to topple Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and would not support any political settlement that left the leader in place.
Photo: AFP
Huge public demonstrations have for weeks condemned Rajapaksa over his administration’s mismanagement of the worsening economic crisis.
Hundreds remain outside his seafront office in the capital, Colombo, at a protest camp that has for the past month campaigned for him to step down.
De Silva is a member of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, the largest single opposition grouping in parliament, which had appeared ready to split over the question of whether to support Wickremesinghe.
The head of the possible splinter faction, Harin Fernando, yesterday said he had returned to the fold.
“I will not support Wickremesinghe’s government,” Fernando said.
Two smaller parties have also signaled that they would not join any unity government.
The Tamil National Alliance said that Rajapaksa’s administration had “completely lost legitimacy” with the appointment of Wickremesinghe, a five-time former prime minister who most recently held office in 2019.
The leftist People’s Liberation Front (JVP) said that new national elections were the only way out of the current impasse.
“We can’t solve the economic crisis by having an illegitimate government,” JVP leader Anura Dissanayake told reporters in Colombo. “We demand fresh elections.”
The cash-strapped government is unlikely to be able to afford polls, or even print ballots, at a time when a national paper shortage forced schools to postpone exams.
Parliamentary elections are not due until August 2025.
Sri Lankans have experienced months of severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine — as well as long power cuts — after the country burnt through foreign currency reserves needed to pay for vital imports.
Wickremesinghe on Thursday warned that the dire situation could get worse in the coming months and called for international assistance.
“We want to return the nation to a position where our people will once again have three meals a day,” he said.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president’s brother, resigned as prime minister on Monday after his supporters attacked anti-government demonstrators who had been protesting peacefully.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
RSS