Senior Sri Lankan lawmaker Dinesh Gunawardena was sworn in on Friday as the new PM, his office said, a day after the swearing-in of a new president as the Indian Ocean state grapples with its worst monetary disaster in decades.
The action came simply hours after protection forces raided a protest camp on government grounds in the fundamental city of Colombo and cleared section of it, with at least nine arrests, as the new administration strikes to crack down on protesters.
A former minister from the Podujana Peramuna party, Gunawardena took the oath of office in the presence of Wickremesinghe, seated in front of uniformed navy officers in a room packed with lawmakers and officials.
The rest of the cabinet is expected to be sworn in later on Friday.
Sri Lanka’s crisis, the end result of economic mismanagement and the fallout of conflict in Ukraine, sparked months of mass protests and in the end compelled then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.
Wickremesinghe declared a nation of emergency whilst in search of a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
