Ranil Wickremesinghe to contest Sri Lanka Presidential polls as independent candidate

Colomb: Hours after the Election Commission announced the date for the presidential elections in Sri Lanka, incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday announced that he would be contesting the polls as an independent candidate.

Wickremesinghe's lawyers placed a monetary bond before the Election Commissioner for his candidacy in the forthcoming election.

Announcing the election on September 21, the poll panel asked the presidential candidates to deposit money till August 14.

A candidate from a recognised political party has to deposit 50,000 Sri Lankan Rupees while a candidate nominated by an elector has to deposit 75,000 Sri Lankan Rupees, the Election Commission said.

Wickremesinghe took office as the President in July 2022 when his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and later resigned amid a severe economic crisis. His term will end on November 17.

Publishing the gazette notification, the Election Commission announced that the presidential poll has to be conducted not less than one month after and no more than two months before the expiration of the President's term.

Wickremesinghe ran the country with the majority parliamentary mandate of the Rajapaksa party, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP).

The SLPP, which has broken into several factions now, is undecided whether to support Wickremesinghe or not. While a section of those holding cabinet portfolios insist on supporting Wickremesinghe as the common candidate, the successor of the Rajapaksa dynasty, Namal Rajapaksa, eldest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has accused Wickremesinghe of dividing his father's party.

The SLPP is likely to announce its decision on Monday.

While "pro-China" Rajapaksas worked closely with Beijing, even building some multi-million dollar white elephant projects with Chinese loans, which critics claimed were connected to corruption, Wickremesinghe turned to the immediate neighbour India and Japan for support.

India came to the rescue of Sri Lanka, which was suffering from a severe financial crisis with no essentials like food, fuel and medicine, with more than $4 billion in monetary aid while Japan started some major funded projects which were suspended during the Rajapaksa regime.