Sri Lanka polls today: Parliament to vote to replace President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who fled abroad. 10 points
2 min read 20 Jul 2022, 06:43 AM ISTSri Lanka Presidential election: The three main contenders for the polls are acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, former journalist Dallas Alahapperuma, and Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, the leader of the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna party
PremiumSri Lanka's parliament will cat vote on Wednesday for a president to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled abroad leaving citizens in a dire economic crisis. The Parliament will choose between three candidates for the 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.
Here are 10-point about Sri Lanka's presidential poll:
1. The three main contenders for Sri Lanka's presidential polls are acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, former journalist Dallas Alahapperuma, and Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, the leader of the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna party.
2. 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 abroad last week after his palace was stormed by angry protesters for mismanaging the economy.
3. Ranil Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister, became acting president last week after Rajapaksa fled to Singapore when protesters seized his official residence and office, roaming the corridors, using his gym, and swimming in his pool. Protesters also burned down Wickremesinghe's private home and stormed his office, but failed to oust him. So a win for Wickremesinghe, who is opposed by many ordinary Sri Lankans, could lead to more demonstrations by people furious with the ruling elite after months of crippling shortages of fuel, food, and medicines.
4. Ruling-party lawmaker Dullas Alahapperuma, a former journalist, is more acceptable to the protesters and the opposition but does not have any top-level governance experience in a country with barely any dollars for imports and desperately in need of an IMF bailout.
5. The third candidate, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, the leader of the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna party, commands only three seats in parliament and has no realistic chance of winning.
6. Today's Presidential polls in Sri Lanka would be a rare occasion when the House Speaker will vote. Never in the history of the presidency since 1978, 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.
7. 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.
8. The new president will serve the remaining tenure of Rajapaksa till November 2024.
9. A candidate receiving more than one-third of the valid votes cast will be declared elected. 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 winner.
10. Sri Lanka needs about $5 billion in the next six months to cover necessities for its 22 million people, who have been struggling with long queues, worsening shortages, and power cuts.
