I respect parliamentary tradition: Sri Lankan President Sirisena

In an interview to Hindustan Times, Sirisena said: "I did say that I will not reappoint Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister even if he receives the consent of 225 parliamentarians. That is my personal political view and I still maintain that view as a person. But, I respect the parliamentary tradition and decided that the post of prime minister should be given to Mr Wickremesinghe. I see this as a characteristic of a democratic society as well as of a society that values democratic practices."

On his current equation with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former President whom he had appointed as PM after Wickremesinghe's sacking, and who stepped down under pressure recently, he said: "We will continue to work as partners of a democratic, socialist political force. We plan to form a broad alliance and parties will join that front."

Clarifying that there was no instability in the island nation and tourists faced no problems whatsoever, President Sirisena said: "There is no instability. Although there were few cancellations, there is no major drop in tourist arrivals. In fact there was a 16% increase in tourist arrivals in November."

Wickremesinghe taking charge as Prime Minister ended the 51-day crisis in Sri Lanka. In October, the President had sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister.

Relations between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe's political parties, who have governed in coalition since 2015, received setback since both suffered humiliating losses in February's local council elections.