Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa unveiled a new government on Wednesday with the swearing in of new Cabinet members, including four members of the Rajapaksa family further consolidating his family’s grip on power.
The 26- Cabinet members took oaths in the presence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in the central town of Kandy.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa retained the key defence ministry while his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa,a newly elected Prime Minister has been assigned three separate ministries Culture, housing,and the key finance portfolio.
Mahinda’s elder son, Namal Rajapaksa has been named the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports – a first time Cabinet position since he entered parliament in 2010.
The eldest brother of the president, Chamal Rajapaksa, 77, was given irrigation, a powerful position in largely rural Sri Lanka in addition to being the state minister of internal security. His son, Shasheendra Rajapaksa joined the government as a state agriculture minister though he will not be in the cabinet.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 71, became president in November last year while Mahinda, a 74-year-old former president was elected as prime minister.
Pursuing a nationalist agenda, their party has won a two-thirds majority in parliament, which allows them to change the constitution and tighten their hold on power.
The brothers want to scrap a 2015 constitutional amendment which transferred some executive powers from the president to the prime minister, along with independent institutions to run public services and the judiciary.
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One of the main features in the Cabinet is that while the veteran politician Dinesh Gunawardena has been re-named the foreign minister, a new state ministry of regional cooperation affiliated to the foreign ministry has been created.
The Rajapaksa led SLPP won a landslide in the parliamentary election held last week by winning a record 145 seats in the 225-member Parliament.
The parliament is to meet on August 20 for its first session. Sri Lanka was one of the very few Asian countries apart from Singapore to hold general elections in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MNA/fed
