Today (11), Southern development minister Ratnayake will take oaths as minister of law and order, while Swaminathan will be sworn in as prison reforms minister.

Marapana resigned two days ago, saying he wanted to prevent any disruptions to investigations into the Avant Garde matter and in order to protect his party.

Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told cabinet ministers on the same day that Marapana had told him that he would quit to prevent a crisis in government over his parliamentary speech regarding the matter.