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Bloomberg
Ranil Wickremesinghe, a veteran lawmaker and former premier, has been named Sri Lanka’s next prime minister days after the last incumbent, the brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resigned in the face of escalating anger with the deepening economic crisis.
The president’s media unit confirmed the appointment in a text message. No other details were immediately available.
The announcement may bring a modicum of stability to the country, which is on the verge of bankruptcy and needs a government to lead bailout talks
with the International Monetary Fund. The country’s central bank chief has threatened to resign if political order isn’t restored.
A lawyer by training, Wickremesinghe was first elected as a lawmaker in 1977. He’s viewed as something of a survivor in the island nation’s politics. He’s served as minister in several governments and first served as premier in the early 1990s. He had an unbroken streak in parliament until 2020, when his party was trounced after the Easter Sunday bombings.