Ranil Wickremesinghe

MPs pick ex-PM seen as close to ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a move likely to frustrate protesters.

As the secret ballot took place on Wednesday, a silent protest was held at the presidential secretariat in Colombo calling for Wickremesinghe to resign. Wickremesinghe’s election follows a dramatic week in Sri Lanka, during which Rajapaksa was toppled after his offices and presidential palace were stormed by thousands of protesters, who jumped in his pool and worked out in his gym. However, it appeared that in the vote most of the ruling party MPs had rallied behind Wickremesinghe and secured his victory with 134 votes out of 219, while Alahapperuma got just 82.

Sri Lankan lawmakers chose six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as president Wednesday to succeed the ousted leader who fled the country.

Wickremesinghe became acting president after Rajapaksa fled the country last week and resigned by email. Wickremesinghe will serve the remainder of Rajapaksa's term, which ends in 2024. Only a few lawmakers had publicly said they would vote for Wickremesinghe given the hostility against him. Serving in a double role as the finance minister, Wickremesinghe has been leading the crucial IMF talks. Presidents in Sri Lanka are normally elected by the public. The Marxist candidate had three.

Sri Lankan MPs have elected prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country's new president, despite his unpopularity with the public.

- One family of brothers has dominated for years: Mahinda Rajapaksa became a hero among the majority Sinhalese in 2009 when his government defeated Tamil separatist rebels after years of bitter and bloody civil war. He had pledged to bring a cross-party government to Sri Lanka that would "put an end to the deceitful political culture" but failed to muster enough support. A former six-time prime minister, he failed in his previous two runs for the presidency. - Sri Lanka is an island nation off southern India: It won independence from British rule in 1948. - Presidential powers: The president is the head of state, government and the military in Sri Lanka, but does share a lot of executive responsibilities with the prime minister, who heads up the ruling party in parliament. "I am absolutely disgusted at the result…

Sri Lankan lawmakers on Wednesday elected former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as President of the crisis-hit South Asian country, in a move likely to ...

By the end of next year let's start stabilizing, and certainly by 2024 let's have a functioning economy which will start growing." Even some members of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna political party have said they disapproved of him taking the top job. "We won't back down, we won't settle for anything less," she said.

Legislators tap six-time PM as president, defying risk of more protests by people angry over deepening economic crisis.

“We know very well that Ranil Wickremesinghe isn’t the same as Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He is a more cunning person. Wickremesinghe has won the general election several times but never completed the term as prime minister. “We are currently discussing our strategy and regrouping. We will definitely continue our struggle and our occupation at GotaGoGama until Ranil Wickremesinghe resigns. We know very well that Ranil Wickremesinghe isn’t the same as Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He is a more cunning person. Colombo, Sri Lanka – The parliament in Sri Lanka has elected veteran politician and six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the crisis-hit island nation’s eighth president.

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe—who was serving as the country's interim president—was voted into power as the new president by the ...

Before the results were announced, a large group of people had gathered in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo for a silent protest against Wickremesinghe. However, one of the protest organizers, Chameera Dedduwage, told Reuters demonstrators “will have to be satisfied with [their] primary demand” which was the removal of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa from power. Last week, protestors called for Wickremesinghe’s resignation after he took over as Sri Lanka’s interim president and declared a state of emergency. In May, widespread protests broke out across Sri Lanka after the country’s economy spiraled into a crisis as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, a slump in food production and a drop in inward foreign remittances.

Mr Wickremesinghe, a six-time former prime minister, was backed by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party of ousted leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled ...

We have very high inflation now and hyperinflation is on its way," Mr Wickremesinghe told Parliament earlier this month. "The worst is yet to come. Mr Wickremesinghe is married to Maithree, an English lecturer. In another turn of the political wheel, Mr Premadasa's son Sajith is now the leader of the opposition and backed Mr Wickremesinghe's main rival for the presidency, Mr Dullas Alahapperuma. But he will now have to address the country's worst economic crisis, and while he was backed by the SLPP, the demonstrators who ousted Mr Rajapaksa have also been demanding his departure, accusing him of protecting the former president's family's interests. Mr Wickremesinghe ran for the presidency twice before - in 1999 and 2005 - losing both elections, and the UNP was annihilated in a parliamentary election in 2020, leaving the silver-haired veteran as its only MP.