Sri Lanka will vote for its next president on Saturday for the first time since the mass protest sparked by the country’s worst-ever economic crisis leading to the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022.
The Saturday polls have been widely regarded as a referendum on an unpopular International Monetary Fund austerity plan enacted after the country’s unprecedented financial crisis.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was appointed by the Parliament a week after Rajapaksa was chased out of power, is seeking another term. He was charged with the monumental task of leading the island nation out of its economic collapse. He crushed what was left of the protest movement shortly after taking office.
He has been accused of shielding the Rajapaksa family from prosecution and allowing them to regroup but he has denied all the allegations.
In the fray is another strong contender, leftist politician Anura Kumar Dissanayake, whose anti-corruption platform has garnered him increasing public support, reported BBC.
Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa and Namal Rajapaksa, the 38-year-old nephew of the ousted president are some of the other candidates vying for the top post.
Premdasa and Dissanayake are strong contenders in the race with Wickremesinghe having more probability to lose to one of them, reported AFP.
The eight-week campaign was dominated by economic issues with widespread public anger over the hardships endured since the peak of the crisis two years ago.
Wickremesinghe pitched to continue with reforms to end bankruptcy in his final rally in Colombo last week. “Decide if you want to go back to the period of terror, or progress,” he said.
Over 17 billion eligible Sri Lankans are expected to cast their votes on Saturday with polls opening at 7 am and counting to begin by 4 pm later in the day. The result is expected on Sunday but the official outcome could be delayed if the contest is close.