Mahinda Rajapaksa assumes duties as Prime Minister

by Zulfick Farzan 11-08-2020 | 10:53 AM

Colombo (News 1st); Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday (11) officially assumed duties as the 13th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka at Temple Trees.

The leader of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the 13^th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in the presence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the historic Kelani Raja Maha Viharaya on Sunday (09).

Elected to the post for the fourth time, Rajapaksa served two terms as the Executive President of the country from 2005 to 2015.

Completing five decades in active politics, Rajapaksa entered the Parliament in 1970 and he played a pivotal role as a Cabinet Minister during the 1995-2004 period.

First elected as the Prime Minister in 2004, Rajapaksa was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the second time on October 26, 2018. The third time he was sworn in as the Prime Minister was on November 21, 2019.

Contesting from Kurunegala district in the recently concluded Parliamentary Election Mr. Rajapaksa received a record-breaking 527,364 Preferential Votes, the highest number of votes a candidate ever received.

Mahinda Rajapaksa will go down in history as the first-ever Sri Lankan to become Prime Minister four times after serving two terms as the Executive President.

Maha Sangha chanted Seth Pirith and invoked blessings on the new Premier.