Sri Lanka's Parliament to elect next president for the first time since 1978

For the first time since 1978 Sri Lanka will elect the crisishit countrys next president through a secret vote by the MPs and not through a popular mandate following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was ousted by a popular uprising against himThe 225member Parliament will elect the new president by a secret vote on July 20 Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said on FridayNever in the history of the presidency since 1978 Parliament had voted to elect a president Presidential elections in 1982 1988 1994 1999 2005 2010 2015 and 2019 had elected them by popular voteThe only previous occasion when the presidency became vacant midterm was in 1993 when president Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated DB Wijetunga was unanimously endorsed by Parliament to run the balance of Premadasas termAlso Read Gotabaya Rajapaksa still in Maldives awaits private jet to depart for Singapore ReportThe new president will serve the remaining tenure of Gotabaya Rajapaksa till November 2024The front runner in next weeks race would be Ranil Wickremesinghe The 73yearold became prime minister from nowhere in May when he assumed the job to handle the unprecedented economic crisisHis United National Party UNP was routed in the 2020 parliamentary election Wickremesinghe for the first time failed to win a seat since 1977He made it to Parliament in late 2021 through the partys only seat allocated on the basis of cumulative national voteUnpopular he may be and hated for his proWestern policies and ways he still enjoys acceptance as a thinker and strategist whose vision is futuristicWith the island nation facing its worst economic crisis since independence he has wider acceptance as the one with the capacity to steer the island through turbulenceA man who always wanted to become president Wickremesinghe had lost two presidential elections in 1999 and 2005Without parliamentary numbers of his own Wickremesinghe would be entirely dependent on the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna SLPP member vote Not a foregone conclusion of their support as the SLPP stays ideologically opposed to himThe next main contender could be Sajith Premadasa the main opposition leaderAged 55 for long the understudy of Wickremesinghe was the one who turned tables on his former leader His newly formed SJB ousted the grand old party ofWickremesinghe from all its bastions to emerge as the main opposition in 2020Ironically it was his failure to step in to fill the power vacuum mid May which made way for Wickremesinghe to become Prime Minister from nowhereHe only stands an outside chance as most ruling SLPP members are unlikely to back him Unlike Wickremesinghe though he starts the race with 50 votes minimumAnother hopeful is Dullas Alahapperuma 63 from the breakaway group of the ruling SLPPThe exCabinet Minister of Information and Mass Media and former newspaper columnist is being seen as leftleaning political ideologue Held ministerial positions since 2005 and enjoys the reputation of having a clean public life His task too would be uphill given his position as a breakaway memberField Marshal Sarath Fonseka 71 the Army commander who won the military conflict with the LTTE who fought the Army in its bid to set up a separate Tamil home land in the north and east regions could be a potential candidateFonseka enjoys support among the Sinhala Buddhist majorityHe comes out as the only politician who was not opposed by the wider group of protesters who engineered Rajapaksas downfall He would however only come into the race if his leader Premadasa opted out of the contestThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever