Today, July 20, 2022 the Sri Lankan Parliament elected Ranil Wickremesinghe (*1949) as President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
223 Members of Parliament cast their votes, 2 MPs abstained from voting, 4 votes were invalid, the number of valid votes was 219. Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected with 134 votes. In addition, Dullas Alahapperuma received 82 and Anura Kumara Dissanayake 3 votes.
This early election became necessary because the incompetent and corrupt Rajapaksa clan has ruined the country and pushed it to the first default since independence from Britain.
The former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was de facto ousted by protests. Photos and videos of Sri Lankans storming his official residence and office, swimming in his pool made the headlines around the world. Fearing for his security, Rajapaksa fled the country together with his wife and security guards. On July 13, he first flew to the Maldives, then to Singapore. Gotabaya Rajapaksa officially resigned on July 15, making way for a successor.
The former prime minister and former acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe comes from a political dynasty. He is an attorney at law (since 1973) and has led the center-right United National Party (UNP) since 1994. He served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1993 to 1994, 2001 to 2004, 2015 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019. After weeks of protests due to the worst economic and financial crisis since gaining independence from Britain in 1948, Ranil Wickremesinghe followed the call by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to form a unity government and became once again prime minister on May 12, 2022.
Rajapaksa fled the country on July 13. The same day, the Speaker of Parliament announced that President Rajapaksa had appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president in his absence. However, protesters stormed the office of the Prime Minister demanding his resignation.
It remains unclear whether protesters will put up with Ranil Wickremesinghe as president. Today, many shouted once again: “Ranil, go home!”
The newly elected president however immediately addressed parliament with the words “divisions are now over”, “time has now come to work together“. He invited his presidential election rival Dullas Alahapperuma to “join me and work together to bring the country out of the crisis we are facing”. Wickremesinghe said: “I have worked in this Parliament for 45 years. My life is this Parliament. I am thankful to parliament for giving me this honour.“
One of Sri Lanka’s problems is that the country’s politics have largely been dominated by a few powerful families, including the Wickremesinghe and the Rajapaksa clan. Nepotism, corruption, incompetence, failed policies, a brutal civil war, the pandemic as well as inflation have ruined the country, which officially still is the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
Suggested book regarding the history of Sri Lanka by Razeen Sally: Return to Sri Lanka. Travels in a Paradoxical Island. Juggernaut, October 2019, 386 pages. Order the book from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.de. Our book review.
The photo of Ranil Wickremesinghe was extracted from a photo showing the Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi meeting the Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, at Hyderabad House, in New Delhi on November 23, 2017. Photo Copyright: Government of India, via Wikipedia.
Article added on July 20, 2022 at 11:25 Swiss time. Updated at 14:23.
