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Ranil may form ‘national govt.’
Ranil Wickremesinghe, who will be sworn in today as Prime Minister, is likely to head a “national government” where the Cabinet will comprise those from the United National Front (UNF) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
Initially, 30 ministers are to be sworn in later today or tomorrow (Monday). A motion to increase the number of ministers, now under consideration, is to be introduced in Parliament when it resumes sittings on December 18. In keeping with a directive issued to SLFP parliamentarians by President Maithripala Sirisena, the SLFPers will not enter into any formal agreement with the UNP. Whilst serving the “national unity” government, they said they would support President Sirisena. However, highly placed UNP sources said they would only take nine SLFP parliamentarians.
Thus, the new “national government” is expected to be on the basis of a tieup between the UNP and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC). A party to this with the UNP will be Ali Zahir Mowlana, the only SLMC member to contest an eastern constituency under the SLMC ticket. All others, including the SLMC leader Rauf Hakeem, contested on the UNP ticket.
There are 21 SLFP MPs. In addition, wanting to join the new government are six other MPs — five from the UNP and another from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). They had joined Sirisena. They are now to support Mr. Wickremesinghe’s new government. These measures were discussed between the UNP and the SLFP during consultations late Friday night.
Another significant move is the naming of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who resigned as Prime Minister yesterday, as the new Leader of the Opposition. Since he still remains a member of the UPFA, its Secretary General Mahinda Amaraweera is awaiting approval from President Sirisena to write to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. That move may see the ouster of Rajavarothayam Sampanthan.
However, the final decision on the matter rests with Speaker Jayasuriya.TNA spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran said the allaince would not have any issue in foregoing the Opposition Leaders’ post.Yesterday’s resignation by Mr. Rajapaksa and today’s assumption of duties by Mr. Wickremesinghe as Premier end 52 days of chaos and confusion triggered by President Sirisena.