Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe
Credit: Reuters Photo
Chennai: With Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by the once-powerful Mahinda Rajapaksa throwing its hat in the Presidential election ring, the stage is now set for a high-octane multi-cornered contest to elect the island nation’s 10th President, who will have his job cut-out as he would face the arduous task of steering the tattered economy.
Incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, a veteran politician who emerged as a compromise candidate to succeed Gotabaya Rajapaksa after he was forced to resign following a national outrage, will face his one-time party colleague and Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, Left-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s (JVP) Anura Kumara Dissanayake, besides the SLPP.
Wickremesinghe will also be challenged in the September 21 elections, the first after the country plunged into an unprecedented economic crisis leading to nationwide protests, by his former cabinet colleague Wijeyedasa Rajapakshe, who ex-President Maithripala Sirisena backs.
The Presidential elections come at a time when the tear-shaped island nation is limping back to normalcy after the 2022 economic crisis triggered by the wrong policies of the Gotabaya regime brought the country to its knees.
After a citizen uprising, Gotabaya and Mahinda resigned as President and Prime Minister even as politicians belonging to every political party invited the wrath of the people, who torched their residences with several veterans, including Wickremesinghe, falling victim to such actions.
Wickremesinghe was elected as President after the SLPP pledged support to him, but his “tough measures” like “high tax” have worsened people’s plight in the country though many hail his “bold moves” that are beginning to work.
The 75-year-old veteran of the United National Party (UNP) is banking on the support from a breakaway faction of the SLPP, and minorities like Tamils, who are spread across the country’s north and east, Muslims, and Christians, besides a chunk of Sinhala Buddhists.
However, his Presidential bid – he lost the polls in 1999 and 2005 to Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda – isn’t going to be an easy task this time as well with SLPP fielding its candidate. Most of his colleagues are now part of Samagi Jana Balawegaya led by Premadasa and the incumbent will face a huge challenge in winning over the voters.
Though the Rajapaksa family is in political oblivion after the 2022 fiasco, their influence among their core vote base of Sinhala Buddhists is quite significant and SLPP’s support could have made the election a cakewalk for Wickremesinghe, who is harping on the need for a “strong leadership” and “continuity” to cling to the President’s chair for five more years.
Wickremesinghe’s austerity measures and hiking taxes, which have led to skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, are also unpopular in the country. A World Bank report released in April said over 25.9 per cent of Sri Lankan citizens were living below the poverty line in 2023, which is an increase.
Long-time Lanka watcher and senior journalist R Bhagwan Singh said that Wickremesinghe failed to do enough homework to cultivate the electorate in Sri Lanka, though he has “plenty of support” outside the country.
“He is a one-MP regime and it remains to be seen how things pan out for Ranil. His friends, especially the Western world and India, are already worried about the return of Rajapaksas to office through their proxies. This is not an impossible scenario as these forces have long controlled and dominated Sri Lankan politics,” Singh told DH.
Singh, who had covered Sri Lanka for over three decades, said the election presents a golden opportunity for ethnic Tamils to get the “maximum” from Wickremesinghe to settle their decades-old problem in return for their support to him. “Tamils have long suffered due to internal disunity. This is an opportunity that they should capitalise on and get the maximum from him,” Singh added.
Tamils in Sri Lanka have been pushing for devolution of powers under the 13th Amendment which was part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord signed in 1987.