Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is the new president of Sri Lanka, having prevailed in the Parliament vote. AP photo.
Ranil Wickremesinghe73, he became the new president of Sri Lanka after winning a secret vote in parliament on Wednesday after the former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa he was forced to leave office and flee the country in the midst of a wave of demonstrations due to the economic crisis.
The Speaker of the Parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, announced that Wickremesinghe got it 134 support from 225 parliamentarians who had to decide the future head of state of a nation immersed in profound political and financial instability.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, former prime minister and interim president after Rajapaksa’s resignation, raced against two other candidates: Dullas Alahapperumafrom Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), which obtained 82 votes, e Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the left-wing National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, which managed only 3.
“Our divisions are over,” Wickremesinghe said in his acceptance speech, inviting Alahapperuma to “join” him in “leading the country out of the crisis we are facing.”
This Tuesday, just a day before the vote, one of the favorites in the elections, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, surprisingly announced that he would not submit his candidacy and showed his support for Alahapperuma: “For the greater good of my country that I love and the people I love, I withdraw my candidacy for the position of president “.
Protesters stormed the residence of then Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to demand his resignation. AFP photo.
“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.
Despite having the support of Parliament, Ranil Wickremesinghe has a large following among the population. Without going further, when the protests escalated, his office was hacked by hundreds of protesters who called for his resignation.
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, who demanded their resignation.
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Source: Clarin
