Sri Lankan President to appoint new Cabinet amid protests: Report

Colombo: Sri lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is all set to draft fresh blood in the council of ministers in the nation amid the ongoing anti-government protests in Sri Lanka following the economic and political crisis. The Cabinet will reportedly remain small to ensure smooth functioning of the government. The swearing-in of the ministers would be taking place today amid spiralling protests against the government, an ANI report said.

‘New cabinet is to be sworn in today. President and PM (Mahinda Rajapaksa) to continue. Some new and young faces will be taken in as Cabinet ministers’, a ruling party MP told ANI. Sources also told ANI that in the recent meeting, the ‘President told the members of his political alliance to constitute a limited Cabinet to run the government’. The entire Sri Lankan Cabinet resigned in the first week of April due to massive anti-government protests.

One among the opposition parties in Sri Lanka opposed the decision of the President to appoint a new Cabinet with inexperienced ministers. President is, incidentally, constituting a new Cabinet seemingly under the pressure of the protesters in the country and also ahead of the Parliament session. Sri Lankan Parliament is going to meet on April 19 with new Cabinet ministers while the Opposition is likely to step up pressure on the back of the mounting protests. In the last Parliament session, ruling party MPs had said that the President is not going to resign from his post before completing his tenure.

Sri Lanka is facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has affected its capacity to import food and fuel. The shortage of essential goods forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countries. The economic situation has led to huge protests with demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Earlier, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in a special address to the nation had requested people to remain patient and stop taking to the streets in order to enable the government to resolve the situation.