Abeywardana fills vacant seat of Wickremesinghe after Sri Lanka president vote

ECONOMYNEXT –  Sri Lanka’s center-right United National Party (UNP) Chairman Wajira Abeywardana has been appointed for the vacant Member of Parliament seat after UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the New President of Sri Lanka.

Wickremesinghe entered the parliament as the only lawmaker of the party for the seat obtained through the national list. He was appointed as the prime minister on May 12 and this week he was elected as the new President of Sri Lanka by through a parliament vote.

A gazette notice was issued on July 22 by the Election Commission said that Wajira Abeywardana will be a Member of Parliament to fill the vacancy after the resignation of Wickremesinghe.

Abeywardana was the former cabinet Minister of Internal and Home Affairs and Provincial Councils and Local Government during the President Maithripala Sirisena’s government in which Wickremesinghe held the Prime Minister’s position.

Abeywardana also previously served as Minister of Public Administration, Management and Reforms in the UNP government led by Ranil Wickramasinghe in 2001. He lost in the August 2020 election when he contested in Sri Lanka’s southern Galle district.

He was the Secretary and Chair person of United socialist students front at University of Moratuwa from 1989 – 1994 and was Elected thrice as a Member of the Southern Provincial Council.

He also was a working committee member of UNP Youth front from 1982-1994 and the Assistant Secretary of UNP in 1994. (Colombo/ July 23/2022)