Sri Lanka's new leader appoints the first female prime minister in 24 years

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Tuesday sworn in an opposition lawmaker as his prime minister, making her the country’s first woman to head the government in 24 years.

Harini Amarasuriya, 54, a university lecturer and activist, comes from a similar background as Dissanayake and both are members of the Marxist-leaning National People’s Power coalition.

His victory in Saturday's election over ex-President Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa came as Sri Lankans rejected the old political guard whom they blamed for pushing the country into an unprecedented economic crisis.

The last woman to serve as prime minister, the second most-powerful position after the president, was Sirimavo Bandaranaike. She was also the world's first female head of government when she took up the post in 1960, and served three terms until 2000.

Dissanayake’s party holds only three seats in the 225-member Parliament and that apparently makes it difficult for him to appoint a fully fledged Cabinet.

During the election campaign, Dissanayake vowed to dissolve Parliament if he wins and call snap elections. The present Parliament's five-year term ends in August next year.

Amarasuriya also assumed duties of four other ministries covering justice, health, women, trade and industries. Another lawmaker from Dissanayake’s party, Vijitha Herath, was appointed minister in charge of six departments including foreign affairs, transport, public security, environment, port and civil aviation.

Dissanayake’s first major challenge will be to act on his campaign promise to ease the crushing austerity measures imposed by his predecessor Wickremesinghe under a relief agreement with the International Monetary Fund, after Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt.

Wickremesinghe has warned that any move to alter the basics of the bailout agreement could delay the release of a fourth tranche of nearly $3 billion.

Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely the result of staggering economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which along with 2019 terrorism attacks devastated its important tourism industry.

Sri Lanka’s politics have mostly been dominated by men since the island nation introduced universal suffrage in 1931. It’s a trend seen in most countries globally — in 2023, a Pew Research Center analysis found only 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations had women as the head of government.

Bandaranaike's younger daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, later became the country’s first and only female president, holding office from 1994 to 2005.