Brief power outage as new Sri Lanka president takes oath

Colombo, July 21: A power outage in the Sri Lankan Parliament complex stopped the live broadcast of President Ranil Wickremesinghe's swearing-in ceremony, forcing authorities to launch an investigation by the Criminal Investigations Department into the incident, a media report said on Thursday, news agency PTI reported.

Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was on Thursday sworn in as Sri Lanka's eighth president and will face the tough task of leading the country out of its unprecedented economic crisis and restoring order after months of mass anti-government protests.

Wickremesinghe, 73, was sworn in as the 8th Executive President of Sri Lanka at the Parliament complex before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya.

The Criminal Investigations Department will investigate the power outage that took place on Thursday in the Parliament complex when the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected President Wickremesinghe was proceeding, the Colombo Page web portal reported.

The swearing-in ceremony of Wickramasinghe as the 8th Executive President was scheduled to be telecast live by state-run Rupavahini and broadcast simultaneously by other television channels.

However, the live broadcast stopped after the President entered the Parliament complex on the red carpet, the report added.

It was later reported that the live broadcast was stopped due to a power outage in the Parliament complex.

In the event of a power outage in the Parliament complex, the generators are usually switched on automatically within two minutes and it is reported that the power was out for about 10 minutes at the time of the swearing-in of the President.

Due to this reason, TV channels could not telecast the swearing-in ceremony.