Sri Lanka’s parliament on Wednesday, July 20 commenced voting to elect the new president after Gotabaya Rajapaksa departed the country last week leaving citizens in a huge economic crisis.
The parliament will choose between three candidates for the Sri Lanka presidential election, hoping the new leader will be able to pull the island out of its worst economic and political crisis since independence in 1948.
The three main contenders are acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe, former journalist Dallas Alahapperuma, and Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, the leader of the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna party, according to News 18.
For the first time in 44 years, Sri Lanka’s parliament will directly elect a president in a triangular contest to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa who fled away after his palace was stormed by angry protestors for mismanaging the economy.
Never in the history of the presidency since 1978, Sri Lanka’s parliament had voted to elect a president. Presidential elections in 1982, 1988, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019 had elected them by popular vote.
The only time when Sri Lanka’s presidency became vacant mid-term was in 1993 when president Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated. DB Wijetunga was unanimously endorsed by Parliament to run the balance of Premadasa’s term.
A candidate receiving more than one-third of the valid votes cast will be declared elected as the Sri Lanka’s president today. If no candidate reaches the mark, the one with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated from the competition, and the preferences of lawmakers taken into account to eventually arrive at a winter.
The new president will serve the remaining tenure of Rajapaksa till November 2024.
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