Presidential elections are going to be held in Sri Lanka on September 21. This information was informed in a government notification on Friday.
The South Asian island nation is in its worst economic crisis in decades. The crucial election is expected to decide the fate of the country’s reforms.
It is said in the notification that the nomination papers must be submitted for election candidacy by August 15.
The election is expected to be held under the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Sri Lanka’s population is 2.2 million. Among them, the number of voters is about 1 crore 70 lakh.
Protests spread across Sri Lanka last year due to a severe economic crisis. The then President Gotabaya Rajapakse was forced to flee the country as he could not handle the situation. Later he resigned. 75-year-old Wickramasinghe became the new president in July 2022.
In 2019, Rajapakse was elected President of Sri Lanka for a five-year term. After he lost power, the country’s parliament elected Wickramasinghe to serve out the remainder of the term.
Bhavani Fonseka, senior researcher at the Colombo-based Center for Policy Alternatives, said this is an important time for Sri Lanka. Calling elections is very important for democracy. But now the Election Commission should be allowed to do the work it is responsible for doing. A fair and impartial election is essential.
Wickramasinghe has largely overcome the crisis in the economy with the assistance of 290 crores from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Inflation rate in the country was 70 percent in 2022. Wickramasingh’s government has reduced it to 1.7 percent. Apart from strengthening the local currency, foreign exchange reserves have also been restructured. The country’s economy is expected to grow by 3 percent in 2024.
