Lanka to hold first presidential vote since unrest in Sept

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s first presidential elections since an unprecedented economic crisis spurred widespread unrest will be held in September, the election commission said Friday.

The election will be the first test of the public mood since the height of the 2022 downturn, which caused months of food, fuel and medicine shortages across the island nation.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75, who took office after street protests forced his predecessor to flee the country, has filed his nomination as an independent candidate. He will face at least two rivals campaigning against austerity measures his government imposed to satisfy an International Monetary Fund bailout package.

“We expect a very competitive election,” Rohana Hettiarachchi of local poll monitor PAFFEL told AFP. “The important issue is the economic crisis.” Election commission chair R.M.A.L. Rathnayake told reporters that the election had been scheduled for September 21, a Saturday, to ensure a high turnout.Economic issues are expected to dominate the five-week campaign announced by the commission as the country emerges from its worst-ever recession in 2022, when the GDP shrank by a record 7.8 percent. Inflation has since returned to normal levels from its peak of 70 percent at the height of the crisis.

Wickremesinghe has also successfully negotiated a restructuring of Sri Lanka’s $46 billion foreign debt with bilateral lenders including China, following a 2022 government default. “At this time we need the leadership of this capitalist to get us out of the mess,” human rights activist Nimalka Fernando, 71, said of Wickremesinghe’s record.

“We can talk about party politics after we have repaid our debts,” she added. But Wickremesinghe’s policies to balance the government’s books by hiking taxes and withdrawing generous utility subsidies have been deeply unpopular with the public.