The President is postponing the planned Cabinet reshuffle due to the difficulty in finding a suitable person to be appointed to the post of Prime Minister, a senior official from the Presidential Secretariat said.

Although the President has decided to replace Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne due to his deteriorating health condition and memory failures, finding a suitable person for the post has posed a great problem.

However, the President has decided not to appoint either of his brothers, Basil or Chamal Rajapaksa or even senior SLFP ministers Maithripala Sirisena or Nimal Siripala de Silva.

The official said that if the President is unable to find a suitable person from the SLFP, he is looking at carrying out the Cabinet reshuffle by temporarily appointing the leader of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to the post of Prime Minister.