Following a landslide victory in last week’s hasty parliamentary elections, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the country’s Marxist president, reappointed educationist Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister of Sri Lanka.
As he contemplates comprehensive reforms, including a campaign pledge of a new constitution, and to combat corruption in a country emerging from its greatest economic crisis, Dissanayake appointed a 21-member cabinet on Monday, keeping the important defense and finance positions.
The catastrophe that forced the 22 million-person country into a sovereign default and led its economy to contract by 2.3 percent last year and 7.3 percent in 2022 was brought on by a chronic scarcity of foreign cash. After the default, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been implementing a financial program for the nation.