Ranil Wickremesinghe, former prime minister and interim president of Sri Lanka, will be a candidate in the elections. Photo: Ishara Kodikara / AFP.
After the escape and resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksathe Sri Lankan Parliament will decide this Wednesday by secret ballot the new president from the country. Among the three politicians who presented their candidacy there is Ranil Wickremesinghecurrent interim president and former prime minister.
The parliamentarian Dullas Alahapperumafrom Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), e Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the left-wing National People’s Power (NPP) coalition.
The vote, which will be held in secret by the 225 lawmakers who make up the Sri Lankan parliament, will begin at 10am (local time) on Wednesday.
One of the favorites in the elections, the leader of the opposition Sajith Premadasasurprisingly announced that he would not submit his candidacy and showed his support for Alahapperuma: “For the greater good of my country I love and the people I respect, I withdraw my application to the office of president “.
“Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), our alliance and our opposition comrades will work for the victory of Dullas (Alahapperuma),” he said on his official Twitter account.
Hours before the statement, he tweeted: “I’m going to Parliament to take a crucial step. I want people to know. I will make the right decision at the right time to protect my country’s national interest and the rights of all my Sri Lankan citizens “
The crisis in Sri Lanka that led to the resignation of the president
The island country has suffered for months shortages of medicines, food and fuelcaused in part by large debt, bad government policies and the impact of the Easter attacks and the coronavirus pandemic on tourism.
This situation has sparked protests across the island since the end of March, when thousands of people began taking to the streets to demand Rajapaksa’s resignation for his management of the economic crisis.
Tensions escalated until, on 9 July, hundreds of protesters broke into the official residences of Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe, demanding their resignations.
However, only Rajapaksa fled the country on Wednesday, along with his wife and two bodyguards, heading to the Maldives and then to Singapore, from where he sent his resignation by post.
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