Sri Lanka president drops brother as FM amid protests over crisis
Al JazeeraAli Sabry to be the new finance minister, replacing Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s brother Basil as cracks emerge in ruling coalition. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has dropped his brother as finance minister after calling for a unity government as protests against an economic crisis persist and cracks emerge in the ruling coalition. Call for unity gov’t Earlier on Monday, the Sri Lankan president called for a unity government to deal with the country’s economic crisis, as cabinet ministers and the central bank governor offered to resign and stock trading halted twice because of a plunge in share prices. “The president invites all political parties in parliament to accept cabinet posts and join the effort to seek solutions to the national crisis,” Rajapaksa’s office said in a statement on Monday. The invitation to the opposition came after 26 cabinet ministers – every member except the president’s elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa – submitted letters of resignation at a late-night meeting on Sunday.