Colombo: Dinesh Gunawardena, a veteran politician and an in depth ally of the Rajapaksa household was appointed on Friday as Sri Lanka’s prime minister by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, a day after he was himself sworn into the highest put up. That is the primary appointment made by President Wickremesinghe on his first day in workplace. A stalwart of Sri Lankan politics, Gunawardena, 73, earlier served because the international minister and schooling minister. He was appointed as House Minister in April by then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The prime minister’s put up fell vacant after Wickremesinghe, 73, was on Thursday sworn in because the nation’s eighth president after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the nation after which resigned as president. A schoolmate of President Wickremesinghe, Gunawardena, has held varied Cupboard posts up to now.
Born in 1949, Gunawardena is the chief of the Trotskyist majority nationalist Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) a constituent get together of the ruling SLPP. He succeeded his father Philip Gunawardena in 1979 to steer the get together after getting back from the Netherlands the place he accomplished his larger research.
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His father was a distinguished determine within the leftist socialist motion within the British period previous to the nation’s independence in 1948. The MEP turned the ruling alliance in 1956. Gunawardena entered parliament for the primary time in 1983 from the populous Colombo suburb of Maharagama and have become a number one opposition determine till 1994.
He turned a Cupboard minister for the primary time in 2000. He continued in senior cupboard positions till 2015. He’s a widower and has one son, who can be a Member of Parliament.
Gunawardena’s appointment got here hours after Sri Lankan safety forces cleared a protest camp close to the presidential palace and made a number of arrests.
Wickremesinghe, who was on Thursday sworn in because the nation’s eighth president after he received a parliamentary poll, earlier mentioned he intends to take authorized motion in opposition to protesters who proceed to occupy the President’s Workplace.
The brand new authorities faces the duty of main the nation out of its financial collapse and restoring order after months of mass protests that compelled President Rajapaksa to flee the nation and resign.