Wickremesinghe, Premadasa among four leaders to contest presidential election

Sri Lankas acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe main Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa are among the four leaders who have joined the race to become the countrys next President as the lawmakers met on Saturday to start the process of electing a new president to succeed Gotabaya Rajapaksa who resigned after unprecedented protests against his government over the countrys economic collapseBesides Wickremesinghe and Premadasa Marxist JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Dullas Alahapperuma a breakaway SLPP candidate are the other two leaders who have so far announced their candidacy to contest the July 20 vote in Parliament to succeed Rajapaksa for the rest of his term until November 2024 after he resigned on ThursdayParliament met for a brief special session on Saturday to announce the vacancy in the presidency following the resignation of RajapaksaAlso Read Sri Lanka declares state of emergency after President Gotabaya Rajpakasa fleesRajapaksa who fled to the Maldives on Wednesday and then landed in Singapore on Thursday formally resigned on Friday capping off a chaotic 72 hours in the crisishit nation that saw protesters storm many iconic buildings including the President and the Prime Ministers residences hereDuring the 13minute special session Dhammika Dassanayake Secretary General of Parliament announced the vacancy for the post of presidentDasanayake said that nominations for the election of the new president will be heard on Tuesday and if there is more than one candidate the lawmakers will vote on Wednesday Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna JVP leader Dissanayake 53 on Saturday officially declared his intention to contest the electionThe main reason for this is that we feel that our party and our leader represents many of the aspirations and in fact the spirit of the peoples movement that has been taking place in our country for so long his partys spokesperson Harini Amarasuriya told reportersMain Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya SJB leader Premadasa while officially declaring his intention to contest the vote said Even though it is an uphill struggle I am convinced that truth will prevailThe 225member Parliament is dominated by Rajapaksas ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna SLPP partyThe ruling SLPP which officially announced its backing for Wickremesinghe the acting president found some resistance to its decision from withinIts chair GL Peiris said the party should not vote for anyone other than its own member He said the party must back Alahapperuma a breakaway SLPP candidate who has put himself forward to the voteThe party is to meet on Saturday to make the final decision 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 RajapaksaNever in the history of the presidency since 1978 Parliament had voted to elect a presidentPresidential 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 termThe front runner in next weeks race would be 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 1977 He made it to Parliament in late 2021 through the partys only seat allocated on the basis of a cumulative national voteWithout parliamentary numbers of his own Wickremesinghe would be entirely dependent on the ruling SLPP member votePremadasa 55 for long the understudy of Wickremesinghe was the one who turned the tables on his former leader His newly formed SJB ousted the grand old party of Wickremesinghe from all its bastions to emerge as the main opposition in 2020Ironically it was his failure to step in to fill the power vacuum in midMay 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 Alahapperuma 63 is from the breakaway group of the ruling SLPPThe exCabinet Minister of Information and Mass Media and former newspaper columnist is being seen as a 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 memberThis 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