Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appoints interim Cabinet

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday appointed an interim Cabinet which is aimed to run the government until the next parliamentary election.nnThe 16-member Cabinet included President’s brothers- Mahinda Rajapaksa, 74, and Chamal Rajapaksa, 77, two Tamils and a woman.nnThis is an interim government, Gotabaya Rajapaksa said during the swearing-in ceremony.nnHe said ministers of state would be appointed next week.nnGotabhaya Rajapaksa as the President cannot hold ministries although he is the head of the Cabinet.nnThe Tamil minority members came from the Tamil dominated north and from the central tea plantations areas of Tamils of Indian origin.nnMahinda Rajapaksa, who is appointed on the post of the Prime Minister in the new Cabinet, was also named as the Minister of Defence and Finance while the eldest of the brothers Chamal Rajapaksa was named the Minister of Trade and Food Security.nnDinesh Gunawardena, 70, a veteran Marxist politician has been named as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.nnThe Cabinet appointment is seen as interim until the President dissolves the current parliament and go for a fresh parliamentary election.nnThe next parliamentary poll is scheduled only after August 2020. Constitutionally, a sitting prime minister cannot be removed unless he resigns. But following Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s win, the need for a fresh parliamentary poll to allow the new president to form his own government has gained ground.nnGotabaya Rajapaksa could dissolve the current Parliament to call for early elections after February 2020.nnSpeaker Karu Jayasuriya on Tuesday said that the country faces the possibility of a snap parliamentary poll.nnPrime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is also under pressure to quit.nn”As a party which honours democracy, we will discuss with parliamentary group, the Speaker and party leaders about parliamentary elections,” a statement from Wickremesinghe’s office said on Monday.nnGotabaya Rajapaksa was on Monday sworn in as Sri Lanka’s seventh President. He defeated Sajith Premadasa, 52, by more than 13 lakh votes.nn nnSource: Press Trust of India