Sri Lanka’s new government holds smallest Cabinet meeting ever

Colombo: Sri Lanka's new National People’s Power (NPP) government has held its first Cabinet meeting with just three ministers in attendance, according to officials.

The new Cabinet Spokesman Vijitha Herath, who holds multiple ministries, said that he, along with the newly-appointed President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the prime minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya, were the only attendees at Monday's meeting.

It was the smallest Cabinet meeting ever, he said.

Last week, President Dissanayake appointed his cabinet of four, including himself, before dissolving the Parliament to call a snap election on November 14. The last parliament was convened in August 2020.

The constitution limits the cabinet positions to 25 ministers. Herath said while the same number would be maintained after they win the next election, no ministers of state would be appointed.

The parliamentary election to appoint 225 members of the Parliament House comes closely on the heels of the September 21 presidential election.

This is at a time when the island nation has shown signs of a slow recovery from the 2022 economic crisis, where it declared its first sovereign default.

Herath said the parliamentary election would cost SLR Rs 11 billion.

“SLR 5 billion would be allocated under the powers vested in the president. The balance of SLR 6 billion would be taken from the 2025 budgetary allocations,” Herath said.

He said in addition to the appointment of two presidential advisors on economy and finance, the Cabinet had decided to appoint a three-member panel to review the privileges accorded to politicians.

“The committee would study the necessary existing Acts and make recommendations to the president," Herath added.

In the election run-up, the NPP had pledged to abolish privileges extended to all former presidents and widows and pension rights for parliamentarians.