Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday announced that he will appoint a new Prime Minister and a Cabinet this week.
His announcement has come after former PM Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned from his post amid violent clashes across the country as it goes through worst economic crisis ever since its independence in 1948.
"I will appoint a young cabinet without any of the Rajapaksas," Gotabaya said, as he started talks with political parties to stop the country from sliding into anarchy. "The new government’s Prime Minister will be awarded the opportunity to produce a new program and take this country forward," he added.
Sri Lanka has been without a government since the last two days after his President Gotabaya's elder brother and prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned, making way to form an all party interim government.
The President is constitutionally empowered to run the country without a cabinet.
Speaking on the violence that took place in the nation earlier this week, he said what happened on May 9 was very unfortunate. "The murders, assaults, acts of intimidation, destruction of property, and the series of heinous acts that followed cannot be justified at all," the President said.
Gotabaya said that the Inspector General of Police has been instructed to conduct investigations.
He also said that Sri Lanka Police and Three-Armed Forces have been ordered to strictly enforce the law against those who cause violence.
(With PTI Inputs)
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