To end political impasse, SL Prez agrees to interim govt. without brother as PM

TIL Desk/World/Colombo/ To end the current political deadlock, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agreed to form an interim, all-party government with a fresh cabinet, dropping his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister, former President Maithripala Sirisena announced on Friday.

Sirisena, who met President Rajapaksa, along with representatives of 11 political parties who supported Rajapaksa to come to power but decided to stand independent following the recent political crisis, informed the media of the development.

The 11 parties which had insisted on removing PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and the cabinet as a solution to the ongoing political impasse, had also demanded that Friday’s meeting could only be with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa but not with anyone else.

According to Sirsena, appointment of a new PM and the Cabinet of the interim government is to be done by the national Assembly consisting of the leaders of all political parties. “President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is ready to form an interim government, if all the political parties represented in Parliament agree to do so,” he said.