A Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) member was appointed as the new chief minister of the Eastern Province this week, despite the Tamil National Alliance's electoral majority.
Ahamed Nazeer Zainulabdeen was sworn in before the governor, Austin Fernando on Friday.
The move has been criticised as undemocratic by the TNA leader R Sampanthan who had been seeking the appointment of a TNA member to the post.
Stating that the TNA had secured 11 seats in the recent provincial council election and 61,000 more votes than the SLMC, Mr Sampanthan told BBC Tamil the appointment of an SLMC member to the post was "against democracy".
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