The newly elected Sri Lankan president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has selected Harini Amarasuriya, a college professor and first-time lawmaker, as the country’s new Prime Minister. This makes her the third woman to wield the power and the first woman to do so in two decades.
Amarasuriya, 54, is of an academic background with a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Edinburgh. She will be responsible for the portfolios of education, media, and women and children’s affairs. She was preceded by Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1960, and her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in 1994 as Sri Lanka’s women PMs. After this stint, Chandrika Kumaratunga also went ahead to become the country’s fifth president.
An academic-turned-politician, Amarasuriya is the country’s first female premier in nearly 25 years and she became a member of parliament through the NPP national list in 2020.
The latest Sri Lankan election was the country’s first one after it was hit by a severe foreign exchange shortage, crumbling its economy and finances. This shortage left Sri Lanka unable to pay for imports of essentials including fuel, medicine, and cooking gas. Following this crisis, then-president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to flee and later resign.
Dissanayake and his new cabinet face the task of establishing an interim government, with analysts predicting he will dissolve parliament and call a snap general election as his party has just three of 225 seats in the current house.