Sri Lanka leader reappoints Amarasuriya as PM, retains finance and defence

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake picks a 21-member cabinet as he plans sweeping reforms, including a campaign promise of a new constitution.

Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has reappointed educationist Harini Amarasuriya as the country’s prime minister after sweeping the snap parliamentary elections last week.

Dissanayake on Monday picked a 21-member cabinet, retaining the key defence and finance portfolios as he plans sweeping reforms, including a campaign promise of a new constitution, and to fight corruption in a nation recovering from its worst economic crisis.

A nation of 22 million, Sri Lanka was crushed by the crisis triggered by a severe shortage of foreign currency that pushed it into a sovereign default and caused its economy to shrink by 7.3 percent in 2022 and 2.3 percent last year. The country has been undergoing a financial programme by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following the default.

The swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet, which was telecast live, took place at the Presidential Secretariat in the capital, Colombo.

Amarasuriya, 54, will also hold the ministries of education, higher education as well as vocational training. She was first appointed as the prime minister in September to serve in the interim government after Dissanayake won the presidential election, making her the first woman to head the national government in 24 years.

Veteran legislator Vijitha Herath has been appointed the foreign minister. Ananda Wijepala is the new public security and parliamentary affairs minister, while Bimal Rathnayake has been tapped as transport, highways, ports and civil aviation minister.

A political outsider in a country dominated by family parties for decades, Dissanayake’s left-leaning National People’s Power (NPP) coalition had just three seats in parliament, prompting him to dissolve it and seek a new mandate in last week’s vote.

The NPP won a landslide majority in Thursday’s parliamentary election, securing 159 seats in the 225-member house – representing a comfortable two-thirds majority. The main opposition, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), under its leader Sajith Premadasa, won just 40 seats.

It was the first time since 1977 – when Sri Lanka changed its parliamentary system to proportional representation – that a single party has won a clear majority. It is also the first time the incumbent president has the numbers needed to pass legislation in parliament without needing to rely on any allies or coalition partners.

With a two-thirds majority, Dissanayake, 55, can now amend the constitution. The NPP had promised a referendum on a new constitution.

“We must ensure that this absolute power does not corrupt us absolutely,” Dissanayake told at the swearing-in ceremony.

“This huge power that has been given to us must be exercised with responsibility, to fulfil the aspirations of the people who had been oppressed economically and politically for too long.”

The new government holds its first parliamentary sitting on Thursday. It is expected to prepare a budget for 2025 in line with the ongoing IMF bailout secured by the previous government. An IMF delegation is on a weeklong trip to the island nation to hold talks with the new government as well as conduct a third review of Sri Lanka’s economic reform programme of $2.9bn.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies