Sri Lanka’s newly appointed ministers are to be sworn in at the ‘Temple of the Tooth’ in Kandy this week, in what looks set to be another overtly Sinhala Buddhist ceremony for Sri Lankan politicians.

Sri Lanka’s newly-appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed that his government had done a “great deal” for the Tamil people during his previous tenure, as he spoke of livelihoods and irrigation for the Northern Province but not of devolution.

"A great deal was done under difficult circumstances [in the Northern Province] during the tenure of my last government,” claimed Rajapaksa in an interview to Frontline magazine. “This work, which was unfortunately disrupted in the last few years, will be resumed and expedited.”

After a dismal showing in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections, securing just one National List seat, the United National Party (UNP) vowed to “accept responsibility for failures and shortcomings” with the party facing an uncertain future ahead.

The party, one of the island’s oldest, failed to win any districts with veteran party leader and three-time Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also losing his seat. It secured just over 2% of the island's votes, losing more than 100 seats from the previous parliament.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, an accused war criminal, and leader of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), was sworn in as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in a Buddhist ceremony today.

Mahinda took the oath in the presence of Sri Lanka's President, the Buddhist clergy, the Maha Sangha and other parliamentarians at Kelani Raja Maha vihara. 

Content warning: rape, murder

Krishanthi Kumaraswamy was an A Level student at Chundikili High School who was kidnapped, gang raped and viciously murdered by Sri Lankan soldiers and police officers on September 7^th 1996. Three of her family members who went in search of her were also brutally murdered. 

Indian’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka congratulated Mahinda Rajapaksa, after his Sinhala nationalist party obtained a two-thirds majority in parliament, stating that New Delhi is looking to “work very closely with the new Government and Parliament in Sri Lanka for further strengthening comprehensive bilateral cooperation”.

Gopal Baglay called on Rajapaksa yesterday, and said he was “privileged and honoured” to be received by the Sri Lankan prime minister.  

Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa-led government has already shown that it “will wear its majoritarianism on its sleeve,” warned The Indian Express in its editorial looking at the outcome of the island’s parliamentary polls, adding that the Tamil national question “remains an unhealed wound”.

"Displays of muscular Sinhala Buddhism in the wake of last year’s Easter killings carried out by a group of Islamist radicals may have overshadowed the long-standing Tamil question, but it remains an unhealed wound,” said the editorial.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) chief R Sampanthan said that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) “bribed its way into winning a lot of seats by dispensing money and liquor to the people,” as he addressed the press in Trincomalee.

“We are willing to work with the government to create permanent reconciliation in the country,” he said. “However, I don’t consider the election that took place to be a democratic one.” 

The extremist leader of the Sinhala nationalist organization Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), monk Gnanasara, has been appointed to Sri Lanka’s parliament through the national list.

He has been appointed through the “Our Power of the People Party,” which received 67,758 votes and was allocated one national list seat.