Colombo3 days ago
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Since 2000, no woman has become the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has appointed Harini Amarasuriya as the Prime Minister of the country. Harini Amarasuriya was sworn in as Prime Minister by Sri Lankan President Anura Dissanayake. President Anura has handed over the responsibility of important ministries like Justice, Education, Health and Investment to Prime Minister Amarasuriya.
Apart from this, Vijitha Herth and Laxman Nipunarachchi also took oath as cabinet ministers. The Cabinet of Sri Lanka has a total of 4 members including the President and the Prime Minister. This is the smallest cabinet in the history of Sri Lanka.
Harini is the third woman to hold the post of Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Before him, Sirimavo Bandaranaike (3 times) and Chandrika Kumaratunga (1 time) had been the women Prime Ministers of the country. Harini Amarasuriya became MP for the first time in 2020.
Before becoming an MP, Harini had been a social worker and professor in a university.
President Anura dissolved the Parliament Sri Lankan President Dissanayake dissolved Parliament on Tuesday night. Now parliamentary elections will be held in the country on 14 November. Before the presidential election, Dissanayake had said that he would immediately dissolve Parliament and order midterm elections.
The previous Parliament of Sri Lanka was constituted in August 2020. That means this Parliament has been dissolved 11 months before the scheduled time.
Prime Minister Amarasuriya (54) and President Anura are both National People’s Power (NPP) MPs. NPP has only 3 seats in the 225-seat Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Anura had also contested the presidential election in 2019. During this period he got only 3% votes. Harini Amarasuriya also campaigned along with the President in these elections.
Anura became President after counting votes twice Anura Dissanayake took oath as President on Monday after winning the elections in Sri Lanka. The ceremony took place at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. This is the first time in Sri Lanka that the presidential election results have been confirmed in the second round of counting, as no candidate had received 50% of the votes in the first round of counting.
The votes of the two candidates who topped in the first phase, Anura Kumara Dissanayake of National People’s Power (NPP) and Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), were counted for the second time. Anura has been successful in becoming President with the help of young voters who are hoping for change due to the economic crisis of 2022.
Anura defeated the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had been the PM of Sri Lanka 6 times.
From rebellion to power: Anura relaunched the party 5 years ago and reached the presidency Anura, who hails from Thambuttegama in North Central Province, graduated in science from the University of Kelaniya, Colombo. He joined JVP in 1987, when the anti-India insurgency was at its peak. The party had led two bloody rebellions.
Anura became the party chief in 2014. In 2019, JVP’s name became NPP. Anura visited India in February 2024, which is changing the perspective of NPP towards India.
Also read this news… Sri Lankan President said – Sandwich should not be made between India and China: Said – Our friendship with both the countries, will not support either one
Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has said that he does not want to remain sandwiched between India and China. In an interview given to Monocle Magazine, Anura said that Sri Lanka does not want to get entangled in the ongoing battle for dominance in the world.
He said, “We will neither get involved in the race for dominance nor will we support any country involved in the race. Both the countries (India-China) are our good friends, I hope that our partnership will be good in future.” Read the full news here…