COLOMBO: On Tuesday, the top opposition candidate in Sri Lanka withdrew from the race for president and pledged support for a low-profile member of the ruling party who will face off against acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe in a close election.
The new president, who will oversee efforts to remedy the nation’s economic and political breakdown, will be chosen by the 225-seat parliament on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the house selected the last three candidates.
How much support the two front-runners, Dullas Alahapperuma, 63, and 73-year-old Wickremesinghe, have in parliament was not immediately obvious.When he was prime minister earlier this month, demonstrators broke into Wickremesinghe’s office and official residence, as well as that of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had been overthrown. Nevertheless, a section of the ruling party is supporting Wickremesinghe for the position of president. As we all know in the opposition, Alahapperuma, a former journalist and five-term MP, is supported by a different section of the national Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party.
On Tuesday, protesters opposed to Wickremesinghe’s candidacy took to the streets, outraged by the protracted shortages of food and fuel as well as the skyrocketing costs that resulted from the country almost running out of cash for imports.A large crowd of demonstrators, numbering in the hundreds, chanted anti-Rajapaksa and anti-Wickremesinghe chants outside the main railway station in Colombo.
“Ranil, we’re demonstrating once more. One of the protest organisers, Duminda Nagamuwa, called him “a corrupted man.” “We cannot have stability if Ranil arrives.” Sajith Premadasa, the head of the opposition, announced his withdrawal from the contest and his support for Alahapperuma as parliament convened to choose the final candidates for the office.
