COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s parliament votes on Wednesday (Jul 20) for a president to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled abroad a week ago after his palace had been stormed by angry protesters now bracing to get a crackdown from his likely successor.
The winner of the three-way contest to succeed your pet will take charge of a bankrupt nation which is in bailout talks with the International Financial Fund (IMF), with its 22 million people enduring severe disadvantages of food, fuel and medicine.
Analysts say that the particular frontrunner is Ranil Wickremesinghe, a six-time former prime ressortchef (umgangssprachlich) who became acting president after his predecessor resigned, but is despised by the protesters who notice him as a Rajapaksa ally.
Months of demonstrations more than an unprecedented recession culminated in Rajapaksa launching his resignation from Singapore last week, days right after troops rescued the leader from his besieged compound.
Their departure wounds the once-powerful ruling clan that has dominated Sri Lankan politics for many of the past 20 years, after his brothers also quit their posts as best minister and financing minister earlier this year.
Wickremesinghe, 73, has got the backing of the Rajapaksas’ SLPP, the largest bloc in the 225-member parliament, for Wednesday’s key ballot.
As acting president, Wickremesinghe has extended a state of emergency that gives police and security forces capturing powers, and a week ago he ordered soldiers to evict protesters from state buildings they had occupied.
An opposition person in parliament said that Wickremesinghe’s hardline stance towards demonstrators was going down well with MPs who had been at the receiving end of mafia violence, and most SLPP legislators would affiliate with him.
“Ranil is emerging since the law-and-order candidate, ” Tamil MP Dharmalingam Sithadthan told AFP.
Political expert Kusal Perera decided that Wickremesinghe had a “slight advantage”, regardless of his own party acquiring just one seat with elections in Aug 2020.
“Ranil has regained the particular acceptance of the metropolitan middle classes by restoring some of the products like gas, and has already cleared authorities buildings, showing their firmness, ” Perera said.
Intensive lobbying on Wed evening saw two smaller parties promise their support in order to Wickremesinghe’s main challenger, and the final competition appears to be close.
Observers believe that Wickremesinghe will crack down hard if this individual wins and that demonstrators – who have also been demanding his resignation, accusing him of protecting the Rajapaksas’ interests – will require to the streets.
Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, the deposed Gotabaya’s elder brother and head of the clan that has centered Sri Lankan national politics for years, remains in the land, and party resources said that he had been pressing SLPP legislators to support Wickremesinghe.