RANIL WICKREMESINGHE ELECTED CRISIS-HIT SRI LANKA’S NEW PRESIDENT
Al Jazeera – July 20 2022
The parliament in Sri Lanka has elected veteran politician and six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the crisis-hit island nation’s eighth president.
Wickremesinghe secured 134 votes while his main rival Dullas Alahapperuma received 82 votes in the presidential election by the 225-member parliament on Wednesday.
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.
