Sri Lanka was scheduled to form a new cabinet on Monday as political rivals made common sense to deal with the economic crisis after the deadly violence last week, party leaders said.
Protesters regularly set up camp outside the home of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa demanding his resignation for now, as troops continue to march through the streets while ordinary Sri Lankan people line up to receive rare items.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was nominated for a sixth term on Thursday, is struggling to form a “unity government” after the opposition party demanded that Rajapaksa should succeed his brother Mahinda, who resigned as prime minister last week.
However, two senior members of the opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) agreed to split and join the “economic war cabinet”, party sources said. AFP.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has said his party will not block in parliament any “legal solutions to the economic crisis”.
Another opposition party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), said it would provide unconditional support to Wickremesinghe, overturning their earlier decision not to vote.
“We will support any positive decision taken by the new government to address our economic crisis,” SLFP leader Maitr Municipality Sirisena said in a letter to the prime minister.
Official sources say the full cabinet is likely to be sworn in before a parliamentary session on Tuesday, the first since the appointment of 73-year-old Wickremesinghe.
The four ministers were sworn in on Saturday, all from Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa party Podu Jana Peramuna (SLPP).
However, he is not yet a finance minister, and the prime minister is expected to hold a key position in leading the IMF’s ongoing negotiations on emergency bail.
Wickremesinghe has also asked for international support.
He held talks on Sunday with representatives of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in Colombo focusing on issues affecting the supply of medicines, food, fuel and fertilizer, his office said in a statement.
“While acknowledging that the talks were good, the prime minister said the government was facing an urgent challenge to raise funds to pay for fuel next week,” the report said.
“Due to the shortage of dollars in banks, the government is now looking at other ways to raise the required funds.”
Shortages of food, fuel and medicine, as well as rising prices and long-term closures, have brought severe hardship to the country’s 22 million people.
Read: Lessons from Lanka
Protesters across the Buddhist nation have for weeks been demanding the resignation of President Rajapaksa because of the worsening economic situation in Sri Lanka since independence in 1948.
Wickremesinghe’s appointment has so far failed to ease public outrage over the government by bringing Sri Lanka to the brink of economic collapse.
Thousands of protesters marched outside the presidential palace on the seabed demanding that they resign from their seats on April 9.
Long lines lined up outside a few petrol stations that were still open on Monday, a Buddhist holiday, as motorists waited for the set fuel line.
Armed soldiers marched through the streets in a state of shock after nine people were killed in violence last week.
