COLOMBO, May 23 — Cash-strapped Sri Lanka appointed six more ministers today to its new “economic war cabinet”, the president’s office said, but left vacant the crucial finance portfolio.
Last week, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said the new premier was expected to be given the additional responsibility of managing the country’s finances to pull it out of bankruptcy. “There is tension between the SLPP and others in the unity government,” a government official involved in the cabinet formation told AFP. “At least four MPs have refused to take up ministries.” Wickremesinghe took over earlier this month after Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president’s elder brother, resigned after months of anti-government protests turned violent, with at least nine people killed.
The new ministers — for fisheries, agriculture, transport, environment, culture and irrigation — were sworn in before the president at his tightly-guarded official residence in Colombo.