By Uditha Jayasinghe, Sudipto Ganguly
COLOMBO (Reuters) -Sri Lanka’s leftist chief Anura Kumara Dissanayake took workplace as president on Monday, promising change within the island nation lengthy led by highly effective political households which is rising from its worst financial disaster in additional than seven a long time.
Thousands and thousands of Sri Lankans had voted for the opposition parliamentarian, placing religion in his graft-fighting pledge and vow to bolster a fragile financial restoration.
“I pledge … to demonstrate dedication to protecting and upholding democracy,” Dissanayake, 55, mentioned in inauguration remarks on the president’s workplace, saying he was taking workplace at a difficult time.
“Our politics needs to be cleaner, and the people have called for a different political culture,” he added. “I am ready to commit to that change.”
Outdoors, dozens of supporters held up posters carrying his picture, with some waving the Sri Lankan flag and chanting “AKD”, the initials of the brand new president, who displaces the incumbent, veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe.
“I’m very happy,” mentioned one among them, beautician Iroma Nilanthi Liyanage, including that Dissanayake impressed supporters with hope. “We worked very hard for this victory. For the first time the poor people have someone who stands for them.”
Duties he now faces embody organising a brand new cupboard and wooing parliament, the place his celebration has simply three of 225 seats, to cross a price range beneath the phrases of a $2.9-billion bailout from the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF).
Earlier than Monday’s swearing-in, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena resigned to make means for the brand new prime minister and his cupboard.
Gunawardena, 75, took over as prime minister in July 2022 after former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the Indian Ocean nation and resigned amid protests unleashed by the disaster, which induced shortages of important gadgets and a debt default.
Dissanayake was declared the brand new president late on Sunday,
displacing Wickremesinghe, who had been appointed by parliament to serve out Rajapaksa’s remaining time period.
Sri Lanka’s sovereign greenback bonds shed 2.88 to three.28 cents on the greenback in early commerce on Monday to bid between 49.14 and 49.77 cents.
Traders fear that Marxist-leaning Dissanayake’s want to revisit the phrases of the nation’s IMF bailout may delay future disbursements, and that he may search to renegotiate a debt take care of bondholders finalised final week.
Sri Lanka’s shut neighbours India, Pakistan, and the Maldives additionally congratulated Dissanayake on his win, together with China, the most important bilateral creditor.
