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Constitutional crisis ends in Sri Lanka as Ranil Wickremesinghe takes oath as Prime Minister

News Agencies 16 December 2018, 13:04 IST

Constitutional crisis ends in Sri Lanka as Ranil Wickremesinghe takes oath as Prime Minister

United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was swore-in as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on Sunday.

According to the Daily Mirror Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe took the oath before Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat.


This comes after disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was appointed by President Sirisena on October 26 after ousting Wickremesinghe, resigned from his post on Saturday.

The island nation was engulfed in a constitutional turmoil after Sirisena, on October 26, abruptly ousted the then-Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and appointed Rajapaksa, the country's former President, as the new premier. Sirisena later dissolved Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end, and ordered a snap election.

However, the country's Supreme Court overturned Sirisena's decision to dissolve Parliament and halted the preparations for snap polls.

On December 3, the Sri Lankan court had issued an interim order against Rajapaksa and his cabinet, barring their functioning. The following day, Rajapaksa filed an appeal against the order.

After months of political unrest, the constitutional crisis in the south-Asian island nation is now expected to settle down.

-ANI

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