Two Chief Ministers take oaths before President

Friday, 4 October 2013 03:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sarath Ekanayake appointed Central Province CM despite PM’s son polling highest votes
PM’s son overlooked for provincial ministerial portfolio too

By Dharisha Bastians Ending speculation about chief ministerial oath-taking ceremonies, the new Chief Ministers of the Central and North Western Provinces were sworn in before President Mahinda Rajapaksa instead of the respective provincial governors yesterday. Dayasiri Jayasekera, who resigned his UNP seat in Parliament to contest on the UPFA ticket in the highly-competitive North Western Province, was appointed Chief Minister after he secured a record number of preferential votes in the 21 September election. Sarath Ekanayake, the incumbent Chief Minister of the Central Province, was reappointed at yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony before President Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.

The appointments were made after a special discussion with President Rajapaksa on Wednesday evening following his return from New York. Sections of the Government had previously insisted that the only provincial governors were “constitutionally mandated” to swear in a chief minister of a provincial council after the TNA’s Northern Chief Minister designate C.V. Wigneswaran asked to take oaths before the President in Jaffna this week. Meanwhile, Central Province UPFA Councillors Ediriweera Weerawardana, Bandula Yalegama, Pramitha B. Thennakoon and Ramasamy Muttaiah were appointed Provincial Ministers yesterday. In the North Western Provincial Council, elected members D.B. Herath Gunadasa Dehigama, Sanath Nishantha and S. Kumara Rajapaksa were appointed Provincial Ministers. Ekanayake was appointed despite Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne’s son Anuradha Jayaratne topping the preferential list in the Central Province with over 170,000 votes, causing some rankling in senior SLFP ranks. Ekanayake had polled the second highest number of preferential votes in the province. The UPFA said previously that chief ministerial appointments would be made based on the preferential voting lists. But the Administration says it has a policy of not appointing sons and siblings of Cabinet ministers as provincial chief ministers. The policy drew a sharp response from the Prime Minister who claimed that Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa’s son was a Chief Minister in spite of the Government policy. However, Anuradha Jayaratne was also overlooked for a provincial ministerial portfolio by the Government.