Colombo: On Tuesday, three candidates were proposed to succeed former Sri Lankan leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned and left the country last week after demonstrators stormed his home.
The victor will lead a bankrupt country that is negotiating a bailout with the IMF and whose 22 million citizens are suffering from severe food, gasoline, and medical shortages.
Critics claim that in a situation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic but made worse by poor management, Sri Lanka ran out of foreign currency to pay for even the most essential imports.
After several months of demonstrations, Rajapaksa fled his palace and subsequently took a flight to Singapore and the Maldives, where he handed in his resignation.The main opposition is supporting former education minister Dullas Alahapperuma, who will compete against socialist leader Anura Dissanayake in a secret vote on Wednesday, the parliament revealed on Tuesday.
The victor will lead a bankrupt country that is negotiating a bailout with the IMF and whose 22 million citizens are suffering from severe food, gasoline, and medical shortages.
Critics claim that in a situation brought on by coronavirus pandemic but made worse by poor management, Sri Lanka ran from out foreign currency to pay for even the most essential imports.
After several months of demonstrations, Rajapaksa fled his palace and subsequently took a flight to Singapore and the Maldives, where he handed in his resignation.
The main opposition is supporting former education minister Dullas Alahapperuma, who will compete against socialist leader Anura Dissanayake in a secret vote on Wednesday, the parliament revealed on Tuesday.
In a brief session that lasted less than ten minutes at the heavily guarded parliament complex, the three were formally nominated by lawmakers.
Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition SJB party, had just moments before tweeted that he was withdrawing from the race in favour of 63-year-old Alahapperuma, a dissident from Rajapaksa’s fractured SLPP party.
