Sri Lanka’s United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has been named the country’s new prime minister. He will be sworn in at 8.30am on Thursday. The matter has been confirmed from his team today.

This information was reported by the Sri Lankan media The Daily Mirror on Thursday.

Ranil Wickremesinghe had a closed-door meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday evening. There Gotabay requested Ronil to take over as Prime Minister.

After being sworn in as prime minister, he will visit a temple in the capital, Colombo. From there he will return to the post of Prime Minister.

Earlier this week, President Gotabha Rajapaksa announced the formation of a new cabinet. His elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as prime minister amid ongoing violence. The country’s cabinet then automatically disbanded.

In a statement, Gotabaye told Rajapaksa that he was taking steps to form a new government to control the current situation and run the country. The president also said that some constitutional reforms would be made to give more power to the parliament.

Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented economic crisis. That is why the citizens of the country are blaming the mismanagement of the government. If Bikram Singh becomes the prime minister, he will probably head a ‘unity’ government with cross-party support in the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament.

A senior official close to the president told AFP that Bikram Singh would be sworn in as the new prime minister today if nothing happened.