From perseverance to premiership!

• Ranil Wickremesinghe takes oaths as 23rd Prime Minister 
• Fresh elected term after 14 years, 4th stint overall
• Mahinda attends rival’s oath-taking ceremony
• Cabinet of ministers to be appointed next week?

Ranil Wickremesinghe takes oaths as the Prime Minister before President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday as former President and UPFA’s failed Prime Ministerial candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa looks on along with others. By Dharisha Bastians

Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the United National Party (UNP) which bagged the most seats in Monday’s Parliamentary race,took oaths as the 23rd Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and head of its newly-elected Government yesterday.

In a simple ceremony held at the Presidential Secretariat, Wickremesinghe was sworn in before President Maithripala Sirisena at 10:20 a.m., officially kicking off a new cohabitation between the two old allies of the 2015 presidential election.

The pair will lead a national unity Government between their two parties, based on a pact signed soon after the Prime Minister was sworn in last morning.

Wickremesinghe led his party to victory in the 17 August election and secured a record-breaking 500,556 votes to enter Parliament, cementing his claim to the premiership. The figure was the most number of preferential votes polled by a candidate in the history of Parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka.

Wickremesinghe becomes Sri Lanka’s prime minister for the fourth time in his political career with yesterday’s swearing in.

The chamber was filled with newly-elected MPs and National List nominees from both the UNP and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party led by President Sirisena, who witnessed the oath-taking.

Making a startling appearance was former President and UPFA Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa, who the Prime Minister’s aides said was invited to the ceremony. Rajapaksa ran as Wickremesinghe’s de facto challenger in a bitter and divisive Parliamentary contest.

Rajapaksa was seated in the front row, next to Prime Minister-elect Wickremesinghe and his wife, Dr. Maithree Wickremesinghe. Seated in his row on his right were former First Lady Hema Premadasa and Rajapaksa’s former presidential challenger, Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka. 

Wickremesinghe, who passed by Rajapaksa on his entry into the hall, swivelled back to shake the former President’s hand moments later. Following the oath-taking ceremony, President Sirisena also greeted his predecessor warmly and exchanged pleasantries.

President Sirisena and the new Prime Minister will consult on the cabinet of ministers with appointments likely early next week. Both UNP MPs and elected representatives from the President’s SLFP are likely to be accommodated as ministers in the new Government.

President Maithripala Sirisena and his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa greet each other