President Chandrika Kumaratunga refused to swear in S.B. Dissanayake, who defected from her People’s Alliance (PA) party two months ago, as welfare minister in a 25-member cabinet named by Wickremesinghe.
Officials in the prime minister’s office said they managed to temporarily overcome the deadlock by getting Dissanayake inducted as minister for agriculture.
Kumaratunga said she did not want to give Dissanayake the job because there was an investigation against him at the welfare ministry, officials said.
It was thought that the prime minister had taken the welfare portfolio himself, but the position was not included in a statement from Kumaratunga’s office listing the names of the ministers and their portfolios.
Dissanayake’s defection, along with around a dozen others, forced Kumaratunga to call snap parliamentary elections which were held last week.
Her party lost to Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) and he was sworn in as prime minister on Sunday. It is the first time since 1994 that the president is from one party and the premier is from another.
Under Sri Lanka’s constitution, the cabinet is appointed by the president in consultation with the prime minister, but arguably they have the power to block each other.
“The episode... shows it is going to be a very difficult cohabitation,” a Western diplomat said.
Under pressure from the UNP, the president on Tuesday agreed to give up the defence and finance portfolios despite earlier being adamant about holding on to the key portfolios to keep control of the treasury and the military.
As compensation, she will now have full control over the elite Presidential Security Division (PSD) that is deployed for her personal protection.
The PSD, which is nominally under the police department, has been accused of carrying out violent attacks against political rivals and journalists and is also blamed for several politically motivated murders.
Wickremesinghe appointed former attorney general Tilak Marapone as defence minister and senior lawyer K.N. Choksy as minister of finance. John Amaratunga will head a new Ministry of the Interior to run the police.
A former foreign minister, Tyronne Fernando, was given the foreign ministry.
The 25 cabinet ministers, 28 non-cabinet ministers and nine deputy ministers took their oath of office at Kumaratunga’s residence which was guarded by tanks, anti-aircraft guns and hundreds of commandos.
“This is not the final cabinet we have appointed today,” said a spokesman for Wickremesinghe. “We are keeping the door open for some members of President Kumaratunga’s party who have expressed a willingness to join us.”
Wickremesinghe’s government already includes 12 members of Kumaratunga’s former administration, underscoring the mass defections that brought her government down.
The uneasy relations between Kumaratunga and the new government showed when she banned live coverage of the swearing-in ceremony.
The new parliament will have its first sitting on December 18.—AFP