#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40017961

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Sri Lankan MPs have elected prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country’s new president. He defeated Dullus Alahapperuma, with 134 votes to 82 in the parliamentary vote.

Awin for acting president and incumbent prime minister Wickremesinghe, one of the main two contenders but opposed by many ordinary Sri Lankans, could lead to more demonstrations by people furious with the ruling elite after months of severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

Ruling party lawmaker Alahapperuma, is more acceptable to the protesters and the opposition but does not have any top-level governance experience in a country with barely any dollars for imports and desperately in need of an IMF bailout.

The third candidate, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, is leader of the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna party, which commands only three seats in the 225-member parliament.

Two of ousted former prime minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s brothers, including former prime minister and president Mahinda Rajapaksa, as well as a nephew were in attendance as members of parliament gathered for the vote. 

Although Wickremesinghe’s party holds only one seat in parliament, sections of Sri Lanka’s ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), including the president’s brother Basil Rajapaksa.

An SLPP official said that party members felt Wickremesinghe – who is also the country’s finance minister – has a good handle on the economic challenges facing Sri Lanka.

Wickremesinghe was involved in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package and a new budget.

But the 73-year-old politician remains deeply unpopular among many protesters, hundreds of whom clashed with security forces and occupied his office this week.

About a hundred people protested outside the Presidential Secretariat, the office of the President of Sri Lanka as lawmakers voted in parliament to choose the next president.

Many of the hundreds of thousands on the streets who forced the ouster of previous president Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week had wanted Wickremesinghe gone too, labeling him an ally of the Rajapaksa family.

Protesters occupied the presidential secretariat earlier this month along with the official president’s residence, forcing the then incumbent Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.

Protesters recently stormed Wickremesinghe’s private house and office demanding his ouster.

Published : July 20, 2022

By : Reuters