Sri Lanka Crisis: Sri Lanka may get new Prime Minister today

Former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe may take oath as the next PM on Thursday. The 73-year-old United National Party (UNP) leader held talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday and they are expected to meet again on Thursday. 

Wickremesinghe has served as the Prime Minister of the country four times. In October 2018, he was removed from the post of Prime Minister by the then President Maithripala Sirisena. However, two months later he was reinstated as Prime Minister by Sirisena.

UNP president Vajira Abhayawardene has said that Wickremesinghe will be able to secure a majority in parliament once he is sworn in as the new prime minister and will replace Mahinda Rajapaksa, who resigned on Monday.

UNP is the oldest party in the country. It had failed to win a single seat in the previous elections, including that of Wickremesinghe, who contested from the UNP stronghold Colombo in the 2020 parliamentary elections. He later cemented his seat in parliament through a single national list allocated to the UNP on the basis of the cumulative national vote.