New Sri Lankan cabinet to be sworn in on April 21

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2010, 09:29 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has been working on the formation of his new cabinet limited between 35-40 ministers with equal number of deputy ministers, scheduled to be sworn in on April 21, the day before the new parliament is to commence its sitting. A decision has already been taken to re-appoint Ratnasiri Wickremanayake as the Prime Minister to pacify other contenders for the post, political sources said.

Senior Minister D.M.Jayaratne, Maithripala Sirisena are among those who have been vying the post of Prime Minister.

Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa has finally decided to appoint Ratnasiri Wickremanayake to quell the resentment in the ruling party United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA).

The post of Foreign Minister is likely to go to a national list parliamentarian of the UPFA national list as the incumbent Rohitha Bogollagama lost the election in securing preferential votes.

The posts of Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, held currently by Nimal Siripala de Silva and Susil Premjayantha, would also go new faces, sources close to Mahinda Rajapaksa told media.