Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has reappointed Harini Amarasuriya as the Prime Minister of the Indian Ocean island nation.
Dissanayake, whose leftist coalition won 159 seats in the 225-member parliament in the general election, also reappointed veteran legislator Vijitha Herath to helm the foreign affairs ministry.
Dissanayake did not name a new finance minister during Monday's swearing-in, signaling that he will keep the key finance portfolio himself as he had done in September after winning the presidential election.
A political outsider in a country long dominated by family-run parties, Dissanayake secured a decisive victory in the island’s presidential election in September. He appointed Amarasuriya as Prime Minister and selected Herath to lead the country’s foreign affairs.
But his Marxist-leaning National People's Power (NPP) coalition had just three seats in parliament, prompting him to dissolve it and seek a fresh mandate in Thursday's snap election.
The president leaned towards policy continuity as the sweeping mandate in general elections handed Dissanayake the legislative power to push through his plans to fight poverty and graft in the island nation recovering from a financial meltdown.
Sri Lanka, a nation of 22 million, was severely impacted by the 2022 economic crisis, which was triggered by a critical shortage of foreign currency. This led to a sovereign default and caused the country's economy to contract by 7.3% in 2022, followed by a 2.3% decline the previous year.
While the strong mandate will strengthen political stability in the South Asian country, some uncertainty on policy direction remains due to Dissanayake's promises to try and tweak the terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue program that bailed the country out of its economic crisis, analysts said.