As the teardrop-shaped island country of Sri Lanka plunges into a deep political and economic chaos, now leading to a humanitarian crisis, the race for the President’s chair is hotting up with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and former Army chief Sarath Fonseka being touted among top four contenders.
The Sri Lankan Parliament speaker has confirmed that he has received President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation on Thursday after he fled to Singapore.
Sri Lanka’s main opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya’s Parliamentarian and war-time Army Commander, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, said on Thursday that he is ready to take up the top post if the majority of MPs elect him. According to reports, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has already invited him to nominate himself for the PM’s post.
News18 has learnt that apart from Fonseka, other high-profile contenders are Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka’s current Prime Minister and acting president, Opposition SJB party’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya Sajith Premadasa and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Sri Lanka’s Parliament is most likely to elect the new president on July 20.
“The presidential fight is likely to begin soon. It all depends on when Gotabaya (Rajapaksa) and Ranil Wickremesinghe send in their resignation letters,” said Colombo-based political analyst Ranga Kalanasooriya.
“We have a week in Sri Lanka to decide on an interim system. While the understanding is to have a common minimum programme, the person who will be elected on July 20 will be part of a caretaker government, as it seems now,” Kalanasooriya explained.
He also said there would be at least three to four aspirants who will part of the election, which will be conducted as a secret vote in parliament. “It again seems to be a polarised struggle for the presidential post.”
Field Marshal Fonseka is arguably Sri Lanka’s most high-profile former army general-turned-political prisoner and now politician.
He is considered a war hero by the Sri Lankan Sinhalese community for leading the army against the LTTE rebels. In the 2010 presidential elections, he ran against Mahinda Rajapaksa, but stood defeated. Soon after, then President Mahinda Rajapaksa detained him on charges of corruption relating to military procurements and treason. He was given a 30-month jail sentence, topped up by another jail term in 2011 for another three years for having made the statement that the LTTE rebels who had surrendered to the government during the war were killed on the orders of Rajapaksa’s brother Gotabaya, who was the defence secretary at the time. Fonseka later clarified he was misquoted by a newspaper and was jailed for it.
Subsequently, the Maithripala Sirisena government conferred the highest military rank of field marshal on retired army chief Fonseka and completely exonerated him of all previous convictions. He also survived an assassination attempt in 2006 when a LTTE suicide bomber attacked his motorcade.
News18 has also learnt that Ranil Wickremesinghe has been lobbying for the President’s post. Political analysts told News18 that Wickremesinghe has been nominated by Gotabaya as the interim president in order to buy more time and support within Parliament to ensure a smooth transition from Prime Minister’s to presidential post.
Wickremesinghe, the five-time Prime Minister, has been campaigning to be the right choice as he has a better understanding of the crucial and sensitive situation in Sri Lanka and has ample political experience to bail out the country from the current crisis.
“Whether Parliament will accept him (Ranil Wickremesinghe) as the president, one needs to see. As of now, he is the acting president and every decision he makes is crucial for the people of Sri Lanka. The question is whether he will be able to be an effective president and restore Sri Lanka’s economy,” said a UNP leader who did not want to be named.
Another contender is Sajith Premadasa, the Leader of Opposition in Sri Lanka. His SJB party, which is also Sri Lanka’s main opposition, unanimously nominated him for the top post. The SJB has nearly 50 MPs in Parliament, and Sajith would need the support of at least 113 MPs to ensure himself the coveted Presidential post.
The son of former Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa, Sajith has already begun garnering support, even with some of those who had worked closely with Gotabaya. While Sajith has been credited to be the leader who despite coming with a political legacy built his career from Hambantota, which is Gotabaya’s stronghold, not his father’s Colombo central constituency. As a minister, his policies and people outreach programmes helped him secure his position in the Lankan politics.
Premadasa, as a housing and construction minister for the past four years, has reached the grass-root level. His rural outreach programmes promised jobs that helped him gain popularity and came second after securing 5,564,239 votes, around 1.4 lakh votes less than Gotabaya. Insiders in the UNP say Premadasa is the only candidate who can give a tough fight to the other strong candidates.
“Sajith Premadasa is the leader of the opposition and will have the support of his party within Parliament. But conditions have changed drastically since the last election and his support outside Parliament in this new context still needs to be tested,” said Harini Amarasuriya, the MP from National People’s Power party.
Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader from Sri Lanka’s leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, (JVP) or the People’s Liberation Front, is also in the race and is offering an alternate option. Known to be a young and fiery politician, who has taken the Rajapaksas head on, continues to campaign that his party as the best alternative. At a recent debate in Parliament, Dissanayake began a powerful and persuasive speech on being capable of restoring Sri Lanka’s economy in six months. Wickremesinghe attacked Dissanayake stating he is ready to step down if Dissanayake could do as promised.
A few other names that have been doing the rounds are MA Sumanthiran of the ITAK, the party that represents interests of the Tamilians in the county, and Saliya Pieris, the presidents’ council and head of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka.
As the country continues to be in turmoil with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing to Singapore, Sri Lanka continues to finds itself in a political stalemate.
The civil society has been demanding that Gotabaya and Wickremesinghe step down to pave way for the election of a new President and Prime Minister. However, both have not officially tendered their resignations, keeping the country on edge and their political rivals on their toes.
Thousands of Sri Lankans descended in Colombo on July 9 to “occupy the president’s house” and demand his resignation as a culmination of months of protests. The protestors blamed Rajapaksa for high-handedness and economic mismanagement causing shortages of food, fuel and medicine for months.
“We are demanding that the President and PM must step down immediately. That was the assurance given to us (protesters) in order to stand down. The Opposition parties had agreed that he speaker will be the acting President, but what is happening now is completely unconstitutional,” Harini Amarasuriya told News18.
Once the President and PM has been elected, the duo will be faced with the task of rebuilding Sri Lanka by overcoming the food, fuel and medical supply shortage, reducing the inflation hat stands at 55% and most importantly reviving the economy and reduce debt.
In another political twist to the already muddled situation, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced that Gotabaya is “under tremendous pressure to resign and will do so as soon as possible”. A curfew has been imposed in in Colombo from 12 pm to 5 pm today.
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