Sri Lanka’s parliament on Wednesday, July 20 elected Ranil Wickremesinghe, a seasoned politician and six-time prime minister to serve as the eighth president of the crisis-hit island nation.
In the 225-member parliament’s election for president, Wickremesinghe received 134 votes, while his closest competitor, Dullas Alahapperuma received 82, according to Indian Express.
The third candidate, Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, managed three votes, all from his own party.
Wickremesinghe’s win is a remarkable turn of fortunes for a man considered as politically dead by some analysts.
“I thank parliament for this honour,” the 73-year-old said after the secretary-general of the parliament announced his victory.
Wickremesinghe was appointed prime minister after Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to resign in May this year over the island nation’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
He was made the acting president after predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned by email last week.
Gotabaya was forced to escape after tens of thousands of protesters hit the streets in capital Colombo and occupied his official residence among other important government buildings.
It was mainly because of the support from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party (SLPP) that Wickremesinghe became the next head of state.
He had unsuccessfully contested the presidential elections twice since 2000, the last time against Mahinda Rajapaksa, the patriarch of the Rajapaksa clan.
Comments