Outgoing Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is the new president

He was elected this morning by Parliament with 134 votes. A long-time politician, he is not liked by the population because of his closeness to the Rajapaksa family. The opposition candidate, Dullas Alahapperume, received only 82 votes.

Colombo () – The national Parliament has elected Ranil Wickremesinghe as its new president, the eighth in the country’s history.

Parliamentarians met this morning to elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s successor, who after months of protests left the country and formalized his resignation on July 14. Wickremesinghe, a former prime minister, had been appointed interim president because the constitution stipulates that the post cannot be left vacant.

Wickremesinghe, elected with 134 votes, faced Dullas Alahapperume, the opposition candidate, who received 82 preferences, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the National People’s Power, who received the vote of 3 deputies.

Among the 225 members of Parliament there were two abstentions and 4 votes that were considered invalid. Alahapperuma was supported by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, the main opposition party, the Tamil National Alliance, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and several independent MPs. A faction of the majority party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, which had declared its support for Wickremesinghe, also decided to vote for Alahapperuma.

Initially, the presidential race was supposed to be four-way but opposition leader Sajith Premadasa withdrew his candidacy declaring his support for Alahapperuma.

Wickremesinghe, 73, began his political career in the mid-1970s as a representative of the United National Party (UNP), of which he has been its main referent since 1994. He entered Parliament in 1977 and was appointed Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for his uncle and first president. from Sri Lanka, JR Jayewardene. He later headed the Ministry of Youth and Employment, becoming the youngest minister in the country.

He also served as prime minister six times, although he never completed a term. The last one was the shortest: President Rajapaksa summoned him in May this year after the resignation of his brother Mahinda, who had left office in an attempt to calm popular unrest. Sri Lankans have accused the Rajapaksa family of corruption and of being responsible for the dramatic economic situation in the country.

Sri Lanka is in default, with a debt amounting to more than 50,000 million dollars. The country has been unable to import fuel for months and inflation has exceeded 54%, preventing citizens from buying basic necessities, especially food and medicine. People’s protests against the high cost of living culminated on July 9 with the occupation of the presidential palace and the expulsion of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Wickremesinghe is not liked by the population because of his closeness to the Rajapaksa family, but he should remain in office until 2024 to complete the former president’s mandate and at the same time he must do everything possible to get the country out of the economic crisis. In recent days the former Prime Minister had announced that negotiations with the International Monetary Fund they were nearing completion. This year Sri Lanka also turned to China and India for financial help.