Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has reappointed educationist Harini Amarasuriya as the country’s prime minister after sweeping the snap parliamentary elections last week. Dissanayake on Monday picked a 21-member cabinet, retaining the key defence and finance portfolios as he plans sweeping reforms, including a campaign promise of a new constitution, and to fight…
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka’s economy recorded falling consumer prices for the first time in 39 years, official data showed on Monday, with the September inflation figure dipping to negative 0.5 per cent. Census and Statistics Department data showed price drops in both food and non-food goods contributing to deflation in September, compared to inflation of 0.5pc…
Sri Lanka’s new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, named college professor and first-time lawmaker Harini Amarasuriya as the new prime minister of the Indian Ocean island nation on Tuesday, making her the third woman to be appointed to the post. Dissanayake, 55, has taken the key finance portfolio himself as Sri Lanka looks to emerge from…
Sri Lanka’s leftist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office as president on Monday, promising change in the island nation long led by powerful political families which is emerging from its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades. Millions of Sri Lankans had voted for the opposition parliamentarian, putting faith in his graft-fighting pledge and…
Sri Lanka imposed a night curfew across the country on Saturday despite a peaceful presidential election that is effectively a referendum on an unpopular IMF bailout. Police announced the eight-hour curfew shortly after the independent Election Commission said Saturday’s poll was the most peaceful in the country’s electoral history. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is facing…
Sri Lanka’s Marxist politician Anura Kumara Dissanayaka took an early lead in Saturday’s presidential election during the counting of postal ballots, official results showed. Dissanayaka had 60.21% of the 164,000 votes counted, out of just over 700,000. Public servants involved in conducting the election are entitled to post their ballots, which are the first to…
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka will vote for its next president on Saturday in an effective referendum on an unpopular International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity plan enacted after the island nation’s unprecedented financial crisis. President Ranil Wickremesinghe urged voters to give him a fresh mandate to continue with austerity measures he says stabilised the economy and ended…
