Colombo: Sri Lanka’s parliament has elected Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new President to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
He roundly defeated party rival Dullus Alahapperuma, with 134 votes to 82 in the parliamentary vote on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka’s ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country last week.
The country is in a very difficult situation, we have big challenges ahead, says Sri Lanka’s newly appointed President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
This is for the first time in 44 years that Sri Lanka’s Parliament will directly elect a president. Presidential elections in 1982, 1988, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019 had elected them by popular vote.
Dallas was backed by the section of the Rajapaksa party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramina (SLPP), the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) led by Sajith Premadasa, main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance and a number of other independent smaller parties.
However, the election of Wickeremesinghe will force the protesters who ousted both Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaka with their more than three months long continuous protest, back to the streets.
The protesters charged that Wickremesinghe is a proxy of the Rajapaksas.
Suffering a massive economic crisis with no fuel, food and medicine, Sri Lankans took to the streets on
March 31 and protested continuously to oust Rajapaksas from power.
With violent protests on May 9, then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned with his cabinet while President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced his exit on July 9 when protesters took over his official house and office.
Later, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country to the Maldives and then to Singapore from where he announced his resignation two years prior to end of his term.
Wickremesinghe was appointed as acting President until a new president is elected by the 225 member parliament.
Twenty-two million people of the country are facing the worst-ever economic crisis with mounting debts, sky rocketing inflation.
The economy mainly dependent on textile export, foreign labour and tourism was hit by 2019 Easter Sunday attack and then the Covid pandemic followed by political unrest.
Ms Kalinga