Sri Lanka’s Left-Leaning President Swears in New Cabinet after Election Victory

The alliance of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the National People’s Power, secured 159 seats in the 225-member assembly, giving the new leader a mandate to fulfill his campaign promises of sweeping reforms, including to fight poverty and corruption.

The crisis-hit island nation is still struggling to emerge from the worst economic crisis in its history, after declaring bankruptcy and defaulting on its external debt in 2022.

Dissanayake reappointed Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister and lawmaker Vijitha Herath to helm the foreign affairs, foreign employment and tourism ministries, while the president himself retained the posts of defense and finance minister.

“This power we gained is accountable. To whom? On one hand, it is accountable to the public, and on the other hand, to the movement,” Dissanayake told the new Cabinet after the swearing-in ceremony, referring to his alliance’s aim to create a people-centered national movement, Arab News reported.

“We had a lot of good aims. We worked to gain power for that. We struggled a lot … The huge the victory we achieved, the heavier our responsibility,” he said. “Let’s work together to achieve the results our people deserve.”

When Dissanayake won the presidential vote in September, the NPP coalition only had three seats in parliament, prompting him to dissolve it and call for a snap election that took place on Thursday, a year ahead of schedule.

His new, fully-formed Cabinet will govern Sri Lanka after austerity measures imposed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe — part of a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund — led to price hikes in food and fuel and caused hardship to millions of Sri Lankans.

During his campaign, Dissanayake said he planned to renegotiate the targets set in the IMF deal to alleviate the burden placed on ordinary people. A team from the fund is in Colombo this week to review the reform program.

More than half of former lawmakers chose not to run for re-election. No contenders were seen from the powerful Rajapaksa family, including former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya, also a former president, who was ousted in 2022 and largely blamed for the crisis.

Thursday’s election saw the United People’s Power of Sajith Premadasa retain its role from the previous parliament as the largest opposition party, winning 40 seats.

Sri Lanka People’s Front, the party loyal to the Rajapaksa family, secured only three seats in the new parliament.