Yesterday, Sri Lanka’s parliament elected Ranil Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister, as new president to replace Gotabai Rajapaksa, who fled the country after a mob stormed the presidential palace last week.
The official results showed that Wickremesinghe received 134 votes in a parliamentary election contested by three candidates. His main rival, former Education Minister Dulas Alhaberoma, received 82 votes, while the third candidate, the leftist Anura Desanameh, received only three votes, giving Wickremesingha an absolute majority of votes.
“Our differences are over,” Wickremesinghe said in a brief speech to parliament, calling on Alhaberoma “to join me and work together to bring the country out of the crisis we are facing.”
Wickremesinghe inherited a country ravaged by a catastrophic economic crisis that caused acute shortages of food, medicine and fuel.
