Sri Lanka’s new PM struggles to form unity govt

Sri Lanka’s new prime minister struggled Friday to forge a unity government and forestall an imminent economic collapse as opposition lawmakers refused to join his cabinet and demanded fresh elections.

Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in late Thursday to navigate his country through the worst downturn in its history as an independent nation, with months of shortages and blackouts inflaming public anger. The 73-year-old insists he has enough support to govern and approached several legislators to join him, but four opposition parties have already said his premiership lacks legitimacy.

Senior opposition lawmaker Harsha de Silva publicly rejected an offer to take over the finance ministry and said he would instead push for the government’s resignation. “People are not asking for political games and deals, they want a new system that will safeguard their future,” he said in a statement.

De Silva said he was joining “the people’s struggle” to topple President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and would not support any political settlement that left the leader in place. Huge public demonstrations have for weeks condemned Rajapaksa over his administration’s mismanagement of the worsening economic crisis.

Hundreds remain outside his seafront office in the capital Colombo at a protest camp that has for the past month campaigned for him to step down.

De Silva is a member of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), the largest opposition party in parliament, which had appeared ready to split over whether to support Wickremesinghe.

But the head of the possible splinter faction, Harin Fernando, said Friday he had returned to the fold.

“I will not support Wickremesinghe’s government,” Fernando told AFP.

Three smaller parties have also signalled they will not join any unity government, with the leftist People’s Liberation Front (JVP) demanding fresh elections.

However, the cash-strapped government is unlikely to be able to afford polls, or even print ballots, at a time when a national paper shortage forced schools to postpone exams. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s main opposition party joined anti-government protesters on Friday in rejecting the appointment of a new prime minister and insisted the president resign to take responsibility for the country’s disastrous economic crisis.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed five-time prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to his sixth term late on Thursday, but opposition comments signalled it was not likely to resolve the political and economic disarray in the strategic Indian Ocean island nation.

A week of violent clashes between protesters and government supporters across the country has left nine people dead and more than 300 wounded. The president’s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, quit as prime minister on Monday as violence spiralled and is in hiding in a military base.

The rest of the cabinet quit earlier.

“It is clear the (new) prime minister is remote-controlled by the president,” said Eran Wickramaratne, a parliamentarian and senior member of the main opposition party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya. “This country wants the Rajapaksas to go home. We are committed to that goal.” Protesters who have camped out at a site near the prime minister’s office for over a month also rejected the appointment.

“We will stop this struggle when our people get justice,” said Chamalage Shivakumar, one of the hundreds of people at the “Gota Go Home” protest site, named after the president.

“Whoever they appoint as prime minister, we will not stop this struggle until people get relief.”