Sri Lanka President Dissanayake picks Harini Amarasuriya as PM

Sri Lanka's new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, named Harini Amarasuriya, a college professor and first-time lawmaker, as the new prime minister of the Indian Ocean island nation on Tuesday, making her the third woman to be appointed to the post.

Dissanayake, 55, a Marxist-leaning firebrand politician, who was elected president in the election held on Saturday, was also scheduled to pick the rest of his cabinet.

An academic with a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Edinburgh, Amarasuriya, 54, became a parliamentarian in 2020 under Dissanayake's NPP coalition and will also hold the portfolios of foreign affairs, education and media.


Amarasuriya is the third woman prime minister of Sri Lanka, following the world's first woman prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1960, and her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

Dissanayake ran as the candidate for the National People's Power (NPP) alliance, which includes his Janatha Vimukhti Peremuna (JVP) party that traditionally championed Marxist economic policies centred on protectionism and state intervention.

He and his new cabinet now face the task of establishing an interim government, with analysts predicting Dissanayake will dissolve parliament and call a snap general election as his party has just three of 225 seats in the current house.

Dissanayake's intentions to slash taxes and desire to revisit the terms of a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout have worried investors, who fear that it could delay a crucial $25 billion debt restructuring.

Just before Dissanayake was took the oath of office on Monday, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardene resigned, effectively dissolving the cabinet.