President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on September 24, 2024 appointed MP and former academic Harini Amarasuriya as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, as part of a four-member Cabinet under him.
- After Sri Lankans elected Mr. Dissanayake to the country’s top office in the September 21 presidential polls, he resigned as a Member of Parliament, and a National People’s Power [NPP] member took his place.
- Ms. Amarasuriya is Sri Lanka’s third woman Prime Minister, after Sirimavo Bandaranaike — one of the first woman leaders in the world — and her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.
- Ms. Amarasuriya is an anthropologist and she taught at the Open University of Sri Lanka, until the NPP in 2020 nominated her to the Parliament through the country’s “national list” system, that allocates seats based on a party’s vote share.
- Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister obtained her bachelor’s degree in sociology in India, at Hindu College, University of Delhi. She pursued her master’s in Australia and obtained a PhD from the University of Edinburgh.
