Sri Lanka’s interim president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was elected the country’s new president, with a term until 2024, in a parliamentary vote on Wednesday (20). Wickremesinghe received 134 out of 225 possible votes.
Dullas Alahapperuma, a lawmaker for the country’s main ruling party, received 82 votes, while Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, the underdog in the race, received just three.
Wickremesinghe assumed the interim presidency after the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who left the country last week. As protests increased due to the severe financial crisis, Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives and then to Singapore, from where he sent a resignation email to the Sri Lankan Parliament.
After suffering from shortages of gasoline and diesel and runaway prices of staples like vegetables and bread for months, the country’s population has been seeking a complete overhaul of the government, and Wickremesinghe’s election may not calm the protests.
In an interview with CNN , the now president accused the previous government of “covering up facts” about the country’s economic crisis. “By the end of next year we will start to stabilize, and certainly by 2024 we will have a functioning economy that will start to grow,” said Wickremesinghe.
The former prime minister had his house invaded and set on fire by protesters in recent days. Even so, Wickremesinghe reiterated to the CNN his desire to compete for the presidency, saying that “it was not the same government”. “I’m not the same, people know that,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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