Dinesh Gunawardena to be named Sri Lanka's next premier -sources

FILE PHOTO: Dinesh Gunawardena, Leader of the House of Parliament arrives at a Buddhist temple as he waits for Ranil Wickremesinghe who has been elected as the Eighth Executive President under the Constitution, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka July 20, 2022. REUTERS/ Dinuka Liyanawatte

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's new president will appoint senior lawmaker Dinesh Gunawardena as the crisis-hit country's next prime minister, four political sources said on Thursday.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is slated to appoint his new cabinet on Friday, a day after he was sworn into Sri Lanka's highest office following mass protests that forced predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.