Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe won the presidential elections conducted by the Parliament on Thursday after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled abroad amidst intense agitation over the economic crisis. He will serve the remaining tenure of Gotabaya Rajapaksa till November 2024.
Ranil Wickremesinghe is a Sri Lankan Politician who is also currently the 9th President of Sri Lanka since July 21, 2022. Wickremesinghe also holds the position of the Minister of Finance of the country and is the Member of the Parliament from the United National Party. Ranil Wickremesinghe has served as a Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in six separate stints and also served as the leader of the opposition from 1994 to 2001 and from 2004 to 2015. On July 20, 2022, Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the 9th President of Sri Lanka via an election by Parliament.
Entering politics in 1977 he has held portfolios of Deputy Foreign Minister, Youth Affairs & Employment, Education, Leader of the House (1989), PM in 1993 after Premadasa’s assassination. He has been losing general elections since except in 2001 when 2 elections were held. He won the 2015 August general elections after controversially coming to power after a foreign-funded regime change. He has lost 2 Presidential elections 1999 & 2005. Unfortunately, Ranil has never come with any landslide victory as his predecessors.
The attack on Galle Face protestors worked because the people are back in Atlas mode, holding their anger in check, waiting to see how the new president performs. But if he fails, Atlas will begin to move again. When that happens, brute force will not work. The SLPP part of the administration will side with the protestors,
44 years of executive presidency has failed to deliver on any of its promises. Now, 70% of Lankans want the executive presidency gone, according to a survey by Verite Research. Only 15% want its retention. This gives the opposition a genuinely popular demand to centre its actions around. Instead of asking President Wickremesinghe to go home, which he can afford to ignore as it has no popular support yet, the opposition can hold hum to his own promises.
The controversial Bond Scam/Cope Report and appointment of a controversial foreign friend as Governor, the bogus FCID set up for political victimization will haunt Ranil in his retirement. His retirement will also bring back memories of the allegations made against him regarding the Batalanda detention centre and a host of other disappearances too.
Kumarathasan Rasingam – Secretary. Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Org
