Sri Lanka's New President Dissolves Parliament, Appoints Female Prime Minister
Sri Lanka's New President Dissolves Parliament, Appoints Female Prime Minister
Sri Lanka's new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has dissolved parliament to make way for a snap general election. He selected his ally Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister, making her the first female PM since 2000. Dissanayake's immediate challenge is to renegotiate parts of a $2.9bn bailout deal with the IMF involving painful austerity measures. He won the country's first election since its economy collapsed in 2022 amid anti-corruption and anti-poverty policies, drawing increasing support and marking a remarkable turnaround for a politician who won just 3% in the 2019 presidential election.