Ranil Wickremesinghe to be sworn in as Sri Lanka's PM for fourth time today

  United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe will be sworn in as the 23rd Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in Colombo this morning. President Maithripala Sirisena will administer the oath of office.

The other members of the cabinet are expected to be sworn in on Monday after the composition of the consensus based national government takes shape over the weekend.

The Wickremesinghe-led alliance emerged as the largest group in the 225 member parliament with 106 seats, seven seats short of simple majority.

On Thursday, the opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which is led by President Maithripala Sirisena, agreed to form a national government with the United National Party (UNP) led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.

A Colombo Page web site report said that the SLFP had decided to support the winner of this Monday's parliamentary election to form a stable coalition government at least for a period of two years.

The decision was taken when President Sirisena, as the chairman of the party, met with the SLFP central committee members. Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga also attended the meeting.

Former opposition leader and MP-elect Nimal Siripala de Silva said the SLFP will work with the UNP in a coalition government at least for two years. He said that if the concept is successful the SLFP will continue and if not they will withdraw at the end of the two years.

The central committee has decided to appoint a six member committee under former president Kumaratunga to formulate a policy framework to facilitate the process. It has also been decided to sign a memorandum of understanding with the UNP on a coalition government.

Wickremasinghe will be sworn as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for a fourth time.  Wickremedinghe, 66, was first elected to Sri Lankan Parliament in 1977. He has served as Prime Minister on three earlier occasions - from 1993 to 1994, from 2001 to 2004 and since January this year.

He has been the leader of the United National Party since 1994. He is widely considered as a friend of India in diplomatic and political circles.