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| Presidential election in Sri Lanka on Saturday |
Sri Lanka is set to hold its first presidential election after an unprecedented economic crisis. This election will be held next Saturday (September 21). There is a glimpse of a close fight between the five important candidates for the seat of power.
Due to severe economic crisis, in early 2022 intense protests erupted in Sri Lanka. At one stage of the protest in May of that year, thousands of agitated people entered the residence of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Gotabaya was forced to flee the country. Veteran politician Ranil Wickramasinghe filled in that gap.
A little more than two years have passed since then. During this period, under the leadership of Wickramasinghe, Sri Lanka largely weathered the economic downturn. In such a context, the people of Sri Lanka are getting a chance to choose a new leader.
Wickramasinghe wants to be president again
The 75-year-old politician claims credit for stabilizing the country's economy and pulling Sri Lanka out of food, energy and medicine crises, AFP reported. He wants to be the president of the country once again. He is campaigning hard for that purpose.
During the last few days of election campaign, Wickramasinghe said, 'Think about the day when we lost all hope. We had no food, gas, medicine or any hope.
Ranil Wickramasinghe also said, 'Now you have the opportunity to choose. Do you want to return to those terrible days of yore, or do you want progress? Fix it yourselves.'
Whatever Wickramasinghe says, the election has become a de facto referendum on the IMF's program. He raised taxes and took various austerity programs while accepting the terms of the 2.9 billion dollar loan from the IMF. As a result, millions of people have to struggle to live their lives.
Experts say Sri Lanka's economy is still in a fragile state. The government is yet to start repaying foreign debt installments in 2022. The amount of foreign debt of the country is 46 billion or 4 thousand 6 billion dollars.
Ranil Wickramasinghe said, if elected, he will continue the austerity programs. He warned that deviating from the IMF-guided path would create more problems for the country.
The International Crisis Group said in a report this week that the upcoming election is largely seen as a referendum on how Wickremesinghe's government has handled the economic crisis and the modest improvement seen.
The research institute also said that large numbers of people are living in "difficult conditions" due to the country's government budget cuts. The government has adopted a number of austere programs, which the common man considers unfair.
Who are the main rivals of Wickramasinghe?
In this election Ranil Wickramasinghe's main rivals are two. One of them is Anura Kumara Dissanayake. He is the leader of the Marxist party which once went to the marginal stage. The party had an image crisis due to its violent past.
Dissanayake's party led two failed movements in the 1970s and 1980s. 80 thousand people lost their lives in those two movements. The party got less than 4 percent votes in the last parliamentary elections.
But Sri Lanka's crisis has emerged as an opportunity for Anura Kumara Dissanayake. There is huge public support for him. He promised to end the 'corrupt' political culture. People supported this promise.
Analysts believe that people's anger against corruption will give him an advantage in the election. Added to this is a long-standing failure to properly manage the economy, which has only exacerbated the country's crisis.
"A significant number of voters are trying to send a strong message, which is that they are very unhappy with the way the country is being run," Murtaza Zafarji, an advocate at the research firm, told AFP.
There is another candidate in the forefront of the election. Sajith Premadasa. He is the son of a former president who was killed by an assassin during the civil war in 1993. Sajith Premadasa was once mocked as a prince who was given very little importance in politics. However, he is expected to do well in this election.
Sajith Premadasa was once an ally and deputy of Ranil Wickramasinghe. But in 2020, the 57-year-old politician criticized his leader and left the relationship. His promise in this election is that he will get loose conditions from the IMF.
Namal Rajapakse and Nuan Bopage are two other politicians in the running for the presidency. Namal Rajapakse is a scion of the influential Rajapakse family. His father Mahinda and uncle Gotabaya, he is running as a candidate for the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) founded by another uncle Basil.
People's Struggle Alliance candidate Boppage hopes to capitalize on part of the mass coup that ousted Gotabaya Rajapaksa two years ago.
