Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had been Prime Minister of Sri Lanka six times has now been elected the 8th President of the crisis-hit country on Wednesday.
Wickremesinghe faces the herculean task of leading the country out of its economic collapse and restoring order after months of mass protests.
Wickremesinghe got 134 votes, Dullas Alahapperuma, treasurer of his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (Sri Lanka People’s Alliance) got 82 and Marxist party leader Anurua Kumara Dissanayake three votes. Two MPs abstained from voting. Four votes were invalid said Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.
Wickremesinghe had failed in his previous two attempts to become president. His victory will allow him to serve presidential term until November 2024.
Dallas was backed by the section of the Rajapaksa party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramina (SLPP), the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) led by Sajith Premadasa, main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance and a number of other independent smaller parties.
The election of Wickeremesinghe as president can possibly bring back on roads the protesters who ousted both Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaka. The protesters said that Wickremesinghe is a proxy of the Rajapaksas.
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Suffering a massive economic crisis with no fuel, food and medicine, Sri Lankans took to the streets on March 31 and protested continuously till Rajapaksas was ousted from power. With violent protests on May 9, then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned with his cabinet while President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced his exit on July 9 when protesters took over his official house and office. Rajapaksa left country with family.
Later, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country to the Maldives and then to Singapore from where he announced his resignation two years prior to end of his term. Wickremesinghe was appointed as acting President until a new president is elected by the 225-member Parliament.
Twenty-two million people of the country are facing the worst-ever economic crisis with mounting debts, sky rocketing inflation.
