Ranil Wickremesinghe to become Sri Lanka's new PM

Colombo: Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will become the new Prime Minister of conflict-ridden Sri Lanka on Thursday in order to counter the current political stalemate in the country, IANS reported.

Wickremesinghe will take the oath to the office before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at 6 pm local time.

He will be becoming the island nation for a record sixth time after Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned from the post recently after violent clashes erupted in the country after his supporters attacked anti-government protestors in the streets.

For a month, the protestors were demanding the Rajapaksa government's resignation, along with the President, after the nation got hit by a severe financial crisis, which involved power outages and shortages of essentials like food, fuel, and medicine etc.

President Gotabaya had announced on Wednesday night that a new PM and a government would be formed in the place of his resigned brother, Mahinda, and his government. He also proclaimed that he would re-introduce the 19th Amendment, stripping the powers of the Executive President, which he himself wields, giving more control to Parliament.

The Presidential system will be abolished, and the new government's PM can command the majority in Parliament, he said.

But, Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP) has only one seat out of 225, which raises the question of how he is going to command the majority in the Parliament.