COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new parliament was sworn in on Tuesday following a general election that saw Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe form a broad-based unity government.
Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) emerged as the single largest party after the August 17 election, and is now expected to push through democratic and economic reforms.
The premier joined other lawmakers in pledging an oath of allegiance to mark the start of the first session. The UNP failed to win an absolute majority in the 225-member parliament.
It formed a coalition with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse and committed itself to “ethnic reconciliation” following the Tamil separatist war.
Rajapakse, who oversaw the crushing of the decades-long insurgency and who refused to join the coalition, took his seat on the opposition benches along with a group of his supporters.