Sri Lanka It's Happening

April 12, 2004

During the bad old days of president Premadasa's rule a group of leading politicians from the UNP tried to impeach him. President Premadasa managed to defeat this attempt by sacking the group that lead the impeachment campaign and promoting nearly everyone else that remained that was left to the rank of minister.

When all the good names for ministries were used up the rest were made deputy ministers. There were still a few MPs left and they were made project ministers. All together they numbered close to a hundred.

The UPFA which was then the SLFP / PA went to town on this issue. One of the main campaign promises was to restrict the number of ministeries to twenty. This promise played a pivotal role in winning the election and after winning it twenty four (24) ministries were immidately created.

This time around the promise was a more realistic thirty five ministries. The bidding has started at 31 because the JVP (a partner in the alliance) haven't yet accepted their posts. There are 31 deputy ministers as well.

Posted by raditha at April 12, 2004 12:25 PM