COLOMBO (Xinhua) – Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a new 30-member cabinet after the reinstatement of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe last Sunday.
Out of the 30 members, 29 members are from the ruling United National Front Alliance which includes Mr Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP). The cabinet also includes the President who will function as the head of cabinet.
The new ministers took oaths in front of Mr Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat here after which the cabinet held its first meeting with the president and prime minister.
The appointment of the new cabinet will end a two-month long political crisis which erupted after Mr Sirisena on Oct. 26 sacked the cabinet and Mr Wickremesinghe and appointed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the post.
Mr Rajapaksa however resigned from his prime ministerial position last Saturday after the Supreme Court continued a temporary ban on him and the caretaker cabinet from functioning till the case was further heard in January.
