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New Premier, new ministers, new Budget next week
A new Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers will be sworn in by Monday, ahead of the next meeting of Parliament on Tuesday, an SLFP frontliner said yesterday.

Government spokesman Nimal Siripala de Silva told a news conference that as announced by President Rajapakse in his message to the nation yesterday, a new budget would also be presented to accommodate proposals outlined in the ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’.

With the swearing-in of a new President, the Cabinet stands dissolved till a new one is sworn in.

Mr. de Silva said party leaders would meet tomorrow to discuss how to accommodate the new budget in line with standing orders.The former Kumaratunga administration finance minister Sarath Amunugama presented a budget on November 8 and the debate on its second reading was scheduled to start on Tuesday.

Mr. De Silva said the presentation of the Budget might take a few more days but it would be pushed through before the end of the year.

Mr. Rajapakse’s campaign chief Mangala Samaraweera told the news conference that not only the UPFA parties and those who supported it but even those who did not would be welcomed to join the new government.
Asked if CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman and SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem who supported UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe in the presidential election would also join them, Mr. Samaraweera said they too would be welcome to take the “Mahinda Chintanaya” forward.

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