Voting for Sri Lanka’s presidential election has begun. Voting started today at 7 am. It will end at 4 pm. After this the counting of votes will start. The official results will be available on Sunday morning.
In 2019, the then President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapakse, introduced the tax reduction policy. Also, the remittance flow and the income of the tourism sector have decreased due to the impact of the Corona epidemic. In 2022, the country’s economy experienced a terrible recession of 70 years. Inflation rose to 74 percent.
In 2022, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government was dissolved in a popular coup. In this situation, the current president Ranil Wickremesinghe took over the governance of Colombo. He agreed to accept tough conditions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost the fragile economy. Wickramasinghe adopted various austerity programs, including double tax increase for a debt of 290 million dollars, cancellation of electricity subsidy.
In such a scenario, analysts refer to this election as a referendum on the IMF’s program rather than choosing the next leader. Also, this election is also a trial for the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, they say.
Soumya Bhowmick, an associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, an India-based think tank, told the BBC that the country’s rising inflation, skyrocketing cost of living and poverty have left voters desperate for solutions to stabilize prices and improve livelihoods.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s presidential election is also very important for India. China’s growing influence in Sri Lanka over the past few years has raised concerns in Delhi. Due to the pro-Chinese government in the Maldives, India is at a disadvantage in regional diplomacy.
Official campaigning ended at midnight last Wednesday, 48 hours before polling. There are 39 candidates in this election. However, one candidate died after the Election Commission announced the final list. More than 1.7 million voters will elect the president for five years.
The current president Ranil Wickremesinghe is leading the race for the presidency. After Gotabaya Rajapakse left the country, he was elected president through a vote in parliament. Wickramasinghe held hundreds of rallies before this contested election.
Fellow opposition party John Balawegar (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa is also in a strong position. He is the son of a former president who was killed by an assassin during the civil war in 1993. Sajith Premadasa is expected to do well in this election.
Another candidate leading the fray is National People’s Power Party leader Anura Kumar Dissanayake. He is the leader of the Marxist party that once went to the marginal stage. But the crisis in Sri Lanka has emerged as an opportunity for Anura Kumar Dissanayake.
38-year-old Namal Rajapakse is the candidate from the Rajapakse family. There have been two presidents from this family in the past. One is Namal’s father Mahinda Rajapakse and the other uncle Gotabaya Rajapakse. Namal is contesting from the Sri Lankan Padujan Peramuna (SLPP) party. His other uncle Basil Rajapakse is the founder of this party.
According to the new presidential election law, a voter can vote for three candidates. If a candidate receives at least 50 percent or more of the votes, he will be declared the winner. If no candidate receives 50 percent of the votes, a second round (run-off) will be held between the two candidates who received the most votes.
Source: BBC
