Economically challenged Sri Lanka expands its cabinet after President Gotabaya names new members except for the finance minister.
The new Ministers are from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and its partners, the SLFP and the EPDP, a Tamil minority party in the north.
Mr. Rajapaksa has reshuffled his Cabinet five times since public demands for his resignation began, including forcing the resignation of his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The Ministers will serve in Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s interim Cabinet, which was formed to deal with the ongoing economic crisis.
Douglas Devananda, Minister of Fisheries; Keheliya Rambukwella, Minister of Health and Water Supply; Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Industries; and Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Agriculture, Wildlife and Wildlife Conservation, and the Economy were among the new Ministers sworn in. The next news source tweeted.
Vidura Wickramanayaka was named Minister of Buddhasasana, Religion, and Culture, while Naseer Ahamed was given the Environment Ministry position.
Bandula Gunawardana has been assigned the ministries of Transportation and Highways as well as Mass Media. Minister of Irrigation Roshan Ranasinghe has been appointed. He will also be in charge of the Sports and Youth Ministry.
President Rajapaksa enlarged his Cabinet on Friday to include nine new ministers, including those from the opposition, in a bid to maintain stability in the debt-ridden island nation, plunged in its worst economic crisis since independence.
After more than a week since the President appointed new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the ministers were sworn in. After his predecessor — the President’s brother Mahinda Rajapaksa — resigned in the aftermath of violent attacks by his supporters on peaceful anti-government protesters, Rajapaksa reappointed Wickremesinghe, a five-time former Sri Lankan prime minister.
His resignation resulted in the dissolution of the Cabinet, which created an administrative vacuum.