• New Cabinet/State Ministerial appointments on the agenda

President Ranil Wickremesinghe had called the Cabinet of Ministers and District Leaders of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) for a special discussion yesterday (29), during which the appointment of a few new Cabinet and State Ministers was scheduled to be discussed.

The President had called Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, the Cabinet, a select number of State Ministers, former Cabinet and State Ministers who are SLPP’s District Leaders, and representatives of the United National Party (UNP) for a discussion at the Presidential Secretariat at 5 p.m. yesterday.

When contacted by The Daily Morning, SLPP’s General Secretary and MP Attorney Sagara Kariyawasam, prior to the commencement of the meeting, said that he, as the SLPP General Secretary, had been invited for a discussion with the President. He said that the meeting would also be attended by Cabinet Ministers, SLPP District Leaders such as MPs S.M. Chandrasena, Johnston Fernando, and Rohitha Abeygunawardena, and UNP representatives, including the President’s Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayake and MP Wajira Abeywardana. In response to a query regarding whether he was aware of what would be discussed during the meeting, Kariyawasam said that they had not been informed of such and that a comment could be made only at the conclusion of the meeting.

However, sources close to the SLPP told The Daily Morning that the President had called the meeting to discuss the appointment of a few more Cabinet and State Ministers.

In mid-2022, Wickremesinghe was appointed as the Prime Minister in the face of massive protests against then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the SLPP-led Government. He was thereafter elected as the President with the majority support of the SLPP in a Parliamentary vote held following the resignation of Rajapaksa from the Presidency in July 2022. Wickremesinghe did not dissolve the Cabinet appointed by his predecessor and instead made some changes to it from time to time. It is against this backdrop that Kariyawasam recently said that the SLPP was expecting the President to appoint a new Cabinet with more Ministries being given to whom he referred to as “real SLPPers”.