Ex-Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa Becomes New PM amid political turmoil

Colombo: In a surprise turn of the events, the former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn-in as the new Prime Minister of the country yesterday.

Rajapaksa replaced the current Prime Minister of his country Ranil Wickremesinghe whose coalition government along with a broader alliance United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) reduced to minority after the latter’s withdrawal of support.

UPFA which is headed by the incumbent President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena took back its support from the coalition government after simmering tensions between him and Wickremesinghe in last couple of years.

Rajapaksa was featured taking oath before Sirisena on the Sri Lankan national media soon after the political turmoil yesterday.

Notably, in the current juncture Wicremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) has 106 seats on its own which is seven short of the majority. On the other hand Rajapaksa and Sirisena coalition is having only 95 seats, which is well short of the majority.

However, the constitutional experts in the country have claimed that the installation of Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister would push Sri Lanka into a constitutional crisis which disallows the sacking of the premier without a majority.

The unity coalition government had been formed in Sri Lanka in 2015.

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