Sri Lankan president Dissanayake to appoint new cabinet on November 18

SRI LANKAN president Anura Kumara Dissanayake will appoint a new prime minister and Cabinet on Monday after his National People's Power secured a record-breaking victory in the snap general election.

The NPP on Friday swept the parliamentary elections by winning a two-thirds majority, and also dominating the Jaffna electoral district – the heartland of the nation's Tamil minority.

“We will be appointing a Cabinet on Monday, limited to 25. It could be even less – 23 or 24. There will be scientific allocation of subjects for the ministries," Tilwin Silva, the NPP's senior spokesman told reporters.

According to Article 46 of the Constitution, the total number of Cabinet ministers is limited to 30. The number of deputy ministers shall not, in the aggregate, exceed 40.

Silva said the deputy ministers' number could be higher. “We may have to appoint extra deputy ministers to handle subjects of a bigger ministry," he said.

The NPP has been advocating a smaller government to reduce costs for the public.

Since the NPP won the presidential election in September, the government functioned with just 3 ministers, including the President.

The NPP's victory in the parliamentary election has created many firsts and records for it. It received 61.56 per cent of the total votes counted. The previous best was 60.33 per cent by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's party in the 2010 election.

The NPP won the highest number of polling divisions, 152 out of 168, the previous best was Rajapaksa's 136.

It also won the highest number of districts 21 out of 22, the previous best was 19 by Rajapaksa in 2010.

It has the highest number of 159 parliamentary seats over Rajapaksa's 145 in 2020.

Under the proportional representation system of elections, they became the first party to cross the 150 mark to gain a two-thirds absolute majority. (PTI)