Ranil Wickremesinghe elected President of Sri Lanka in Parliament vote

Six-time Prime Minister and acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe was on July 20 elected President of Sri Lanka — a post that has eluded him despite a near-half century political career — in extraordinary circumstances of a political crisis triggered by the island’s economic crash.

Mr. Wickremesinghe won 134 votes in the 225-member Parliament, securing a comfortable victory margin in a three-way contest. Dullas Alahapperuma, a formerly Rajapaksa-aligned, now independent MP, won 82 votes, despite several independent lawmakers, the main opposition, and most minority parties pledging to back him on Tuesday. The leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake won just three votes. Two MPs abstained from the vote.

“The time for division is over,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said in his first remarks after clinching Presidency. He urged all political parties to come together to take the country on the path of economic recovery.

Third elevation for Wickremesinghe

Sri Lankans attend a peaceful sit down protest demanding the ouster of Prime Minister and Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe outside President’s office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 20, 2022.
| Photo Credit: AP

This is the third unlikely elevation this year for Mr. Wickremesinghe, 73, since Sri Lanka’s economic crisis worsened. The sole member of his United National Party (UNP) in Parliament, Mr. Wickremesinghe entered the current Parliament not through a poll victory in his constituency, but through the national list, based on the party’s total vote share in the 2020 general elections. On May 12, recently ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him as Prime Minister, replacing Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had resigned days earlier, in the wake of violence triggered by his protesters who assaulted peaceful anti-government protesters. On July 13, Mr. Wickremesinghe was appointed Acting President, just ahead of Mr. Gotabaya’s resignation after he fled the island and took refuge in the Maldives, and later Singapore, after protesters stormed his office and home in an escalation of mass resistance to his government.

Also read: Ranil Wickremesinghe | From lone MP to PM

Mr. Wickremesinghe will helm the country during its worst economic crisis since Independence, which has put citizens amidst crippling shortages and soaring living costs. However, his election comes amid enduring public protests from citizens’ groups that accuse him of being a Rajapaksa “enabler”.

Mr. Wickremesinghe has denied the charge, and said he took the PM’s post only to set the country’s economy in order. In a Twitter thread on Monday, Mr. Wickremesinghe claimed power cuts and fuel distribution had improved since he took charge as Premier in May, although thousands of citizens are still braving long queues for days together to purchase fuel. “I call upon all political parties in the country to put aside their differences and come together. I urge everyone to help form an All-Party Government which would allow the country to recover from the economic crisis,” he had said.

Following the passage of the 20th Amendment by the Rajapaksa government in 2020, Sri Lanka’s President enjoys unbridled powers and greater immunity. Mr. Wickremesinghe has pledged to bring about constitutional changes to clip the Executive’s powers and in turn empower the Parliament.