VIDEO: DM sworn in as Prime Minister

Senior Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) member from the Kandy district, D.M. Jayaratne was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister by President Mahinda Rajapaksa a short while ago, the President’s office announced.

 

 

A close ally of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Jayaratne, 67, is a party stalwart who became a member of parliament in 1970 after a career in the Postal Department in the Kandydistrict.

 

 

He becomes the 21st Prime Minister of the island after independence and the 12th under the present Constitution.

 

 

He is a senior member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent in the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) which won 144 seats in the 225-member Parliament at the general elections held recently.

 

 

Though the post of Prime Minister is largely ceremonial in Sri Lankaunder the existing Constitution, in the event of the President’s death, the holder would be expected to step in as the President, as happened with D.B. Wijetunge after the assassination of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

 

The succession of earlier Prime Ministers is as follows according to their periods in office:

 

 

Prime Ministers of Ceylon (1948 - 1972)

 

Don Stephen Senanayake (14 October 1947 - 22 March 1952)

 

Dudley Shelton Senanayake (26 March 1952 - 12 October 1953)

 

John Lionel Kotalawela (12 October 1953 - 12 April 1956)

 

Solomon Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (12 April 1956 - 26 September 1959)

 

Wijeyananda Dahanayake (26 September 1959 - 21 March 1960)

 

Dudley Shelton Senanayake (21 March 1960 - 21 July 1960)

 

Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (21 July 1960 - 27 March 1965)

 

Dudley Shelton Senanayake (27 March 1965 - 29 May 1970)

 

Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (29 May 1970 - 22 March 1972)

 

 

Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka (from 1972)

 

Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (22 March 1972 - 23 July 1977)

 

Junius Richard Jayewardene (23 July 1977 - 6 February 1978)

 

Ranasinghe Premadasa (6 February 1978 - 3 March 1989)

 

Dingiri Banda Wijetunga (3 March 1989 - 7 May 1993)

 

Ranil Wickremesinghe (7 May 1993 - 19 August 1994)

 

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (19 August 1994 - 14 November 1994)

 

Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (14 November 1994 - 10 August 2000)

 

Ratnasiri Wickremanayake (10 August 2000 - 9 December 2001)

 

Ranil Wickremesinghe (9 December 2001 - 6 April 2004)

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa (6 April 2004 - 21 November 2005)

 

Ratnasiri Wickremanayake (21 November 2005 - 2010)