Senior Sri Lankan politician Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Jayaratne was sworn in?in?Colombo?as the 20th prime minister of Sri Lanka Wednesday evening, government officials said.

Officials from the presidential office said Jayaratne was sworn in by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the auspicious time of 6:06 p. m. local time (1236 GMT).

Jayaratne, 79 succeeded Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and heads the government in the new parliament to be convened on Thursday.

The new cabinet is scheduled to be sworn in later Thursday following Wednesday's announcement of the final result of the parliamentary election held on April 8.

Jayaratne entered parliament in 1970 and has held several senior ministerial positions.

Analysts said that President Rajapaksa had recognized Jayaratne 's loyalty to Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the dominant party in the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in opting for him over several others including the president's brother Basil Rajapaksa.

The post of prime minister is largely symbolic in the island's executive presidential system of government

The swearing in came after the UPFA won 144 of the 225 seats in the first parliamentary election held after the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels.

The main opposition United National Party won just 60 seats while the Democratic National Alliance led by former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka won seven seats.

The main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance won 14 seats while winning three former Tamil Tiger districts of Jaffna and Wanni in the north and Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

The ruling UPFA won the rest of the 19 districts.

The parliamentary election was held on April 8 but the final result was delayed until Tuesday's re-poll in two districts because of malpractice in the initial poll.