Sri Lanka elects a five-time Prime Minister. Ranil Wickremesinghe will stabilize the island and get an IMF bailout.

Ranil Wickremesinghe’s sudden return as Sri Lanka’s prime minister is being interpreted as an attempt to quell the island nation’s violent anti-government protests and restore its international reputation in order to aid bailout discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Wickremesinghe, 73, has been as Prime Minister five times, but his United National Party (UNP) today has only one MP in the 225-member legislature. In a ceremony in the president’s office, he took the oath of office in the presence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.