AP | Updated: Nov 20, 2019, 5: 14 IST
Highlights
- Newly elected Sri Lanka President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa will make his first foreign trip to India on November 2
- Jaishankar was the first high-level foreign dignitary to call on the newly elected Sri Lankan President as he flew down to Colombo on Tuesday evening
COLOMBO:Sri Lanka‘s newly elected president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, may struggle to consolidate his victo ry.
With many executive powers clipped and the opposition in control of a powerful Parliament, it’s unclear when and how Rajapaksa will be able to form a government.
Rajapaksa is credited with helping end the country long civil war and is revered as a hero by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority. He comfortably won Saturday’s presidential election with about 52% of the ballots. But minorities largely voted for his opponent, fearing Rajapaksa because of allegations of wartime human rights violations against him.
Rajapaksa said at his swearing-in on Monday that he would form his own government. But that depends on whether Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe steps aside.
A 2015 constitutional amendment curtails the powers of the presidency.
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