COLOMBO
\nThe appointment of a new prime minister in Sri Lanka has failed to appease anti-government protesters demanding the resignation of the president for the country\u2019s disastrous economic crisis.
\nPresident Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed veteran opposition politician Ranil Wickremesinghe as the island nation\u2019s prime minister late on Thursday after a week of violent clashes in which nine people were killed and more than 300 injured.
\nThe president\u2019s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, quit as prime minister on Monday as the violence spiralled and is in hiding in a military base.
\nHuge public demonstrations have for weeks condemned President Rajapaksa over his administration\u2019s mismanagement of the worst economic crisis to hit the nation since it became independent in 1948.
\n\u201cWhoever they appoint as prime minister, we will not stop this struggle until people get relief.\u201d
\nWickremesinghe is the only legislator from his United National Party (UNP) in the country\u2019s parliament and will be reliant on rival political parties to form a government.
\nAn alliance led by the Rajapaksas holds about 100 of parliament\u2019s 225 seats, while the opposition has 58 seats. The rest are independent.
\nWickremesinghe was struggling on Friday to forge a unity government and forestall an imminent economic collapse after a senior opposition figure refused to helm the finance ministry.
\nOpposition legislator Harsha de Silva publicly rejected an overture to take charge of the nation\u2019s finances and said he would instead push for the government\u2019s resignation. \u201cPeople are not asking for political games and deals, they want a new system that will safeguard their future,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLOMBO The appointment of a new prime minister in Sri Lanka has failed to appease anti-government protesters demanding the resignation of the president for the country\u2019s disastrous economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed veteran opposition politician Ranil Wickremesinghe as the island nation\u2019s prime minister late on Thursday after a week of violent clashes in which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[2636,793,7253],"class_list":{"0":"post-260413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-protests","9":"tag-sri-lanka","10":"tag-struggles"},"yoast_head":"\n