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Sri Lanka's new parliament grants approval to form a larger cabinet

Xinhua, September 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sri Lanka's new parliament granted approval for the government to form a larger cabinet on Thursday following a proposal made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The matter which was taken up for debate when parliament convened for the second time following the parliamentary election last month, was passed with a total of 143 votes of a 225 member parliament.

The new government had sought parliament approval to appoint more members to its cabinet than the number approved under the country's constitution after the ruling United National Party (UNP) agreed to join hands with the opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party ( SLFP) to form a national government and work together for the next two years.

The approval will enable the government to appoint 48 cabinet ministers and 45 state and deputy ministers.

Earlier in the day, the new opposition leader R. Sampanthan, who is also the leader of the Tamil minority party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) opposed the move to form a larger cabinet stating that it was against the principles of good governance. Sri Lanka's Marxist party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), were also amongst those who opposed the move to form a larger cabinet.

The new cabinet is expected to be sworn in at the Presidential Secretariat in capital Colombo on Friday. Endi