Wickremesinghe elected as Sri Lanka’s next president

Ranil Wickremesinghe has been elected as the country's next president until 2024 by the Sri Lankan lawmakers.

He won the Presidential race held in Parliament a short while ago, the Speaker has announced.

Ranil Wickremesinghe got 134 votes while Dullas Alahapperume obtained 82 votes and Anura Kumara Dissanayake obtained only 3 votes.

A total of 223 MPs including the Speaker voted while two MPS abstained from the voting, Daily Mirror reported.

Besides, the speaker announced that all three candidates could monitor the counting of the votes or they can nominate a representative. However, the Speaker informed no mobile phones will be permitted during the counting.

Wickremesinghe was backed by a section of the ruling party that had a total of 145 seats as of the last parliamentary election in 2020. Alahapperuma had the support of the other section as well as the main opposition party that won 54 seats last time around. Several small parties have promised to support him as well.

Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May, hoping to bring stability to a country engulfed in its worst economic crisis in memory. Wickremesinghe became acting president after Rajapaksa fled the country last week and resigned by email.