Gotabaya appoints Ranil as Sri Lanka Prime Minister

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Ranil Wickremesinghe, a veteran opposition MP, was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the sixth time in an effort to end the current political crisis in the country.

• Gotabaya's elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as prime minister on May 9.

• Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) was wiped out in the 2020 general elections, with Rajapaksa winning a two-thirds majority.

• Wickremesinghe is currently the only MP from his party.

• Reason of crisis in Sri Lanka

• Mahendra Rajapaksa announced huge tax cuts in his manifesto in the 2019 election, leading to a huge drop in revenue.

• Sri Lanka is primarily a tourism-based economy. The Easter bombings in 2019 resulted in a sharp drop in tourist arrivals, which was further exacerbated by the COVID crisis.

• Huge infrastructural debt. 

• Misguided policies of the authoritative regime

• Due to Covid, there was a further decline in the export of tea, rubber and the tourism sector came to a standstill.

• Remittances also dropped significantly