Colombo, Aug 9 (TIWN) Leader of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party Mahinda Rajapaksa took oath as the nation's new prime minister on Sunday after his party secured a landslide victory in the recently concluded parliamentary election.

Mahinda took oath on Sunday before his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, at a prominent Buddhist temple on the outskirts of the capital Colombo.

Mahinda served as the island nation's president from 2005 to 2015 and is highly popular among the ethnic majority Sinhalese for ending the country's 25-year civil war with Tamil rebels in 2009.

He was first elected prime minister in 2004 and again appointed for brief periods in 2018 and 2019.