Sri Lanka will hold presidential election on September 21, its first since declaring bankruptcy in 2022

Sri Lanka will hold a presidential election on September 21 that will likely be a test of confidence in President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s efforts to resolve the country’s worst economic crisis

Chief of Sri Lanka’s election commission R.M.A.L. Rathnayake addresses the media. File | Photo Credit: AP

Sri Lanka’s presidential polls will be held on September 21, the Election Commission said on Friday.  Some 17 million voters will have their first chance of electing the country’s leader, after a mass people’s uprising ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa two years ago.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe was among the first to formally get into the fray. His office announced making a cash deposit at the Commission for his candidacy as an independent, although he has relied on the Rajapaksas’ Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or People’s Front) since his rise to Presidency through an urgent parliamentary vote, after Mr. Gotabaya’s resignation amid the 2022 economic downturn.

During his two years in office, Mr. Wickremesinghe has vowed to rebuild the country’s economy with an International Monetary Fund-led austerity and reform programme. While no official announcement in regard to his candidacy was made until Friday, the senior politician has sought to highlight his efforts towards economic stability in recent public speeches, signalling a desire to contest. However, his government faces fierce criticism over high living costs, with several sectors demanding salary hikes to cope.

Mr. Wickremesinghe, 75, has served as Prime Minister six times, and as President for two years now, but has never won a presidential election through a popular vote.  

In the election scheduled to be held this September, he faces two prominent challengers in Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, and Leader of the National People’s Power [NPP] alliance Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Sri Lanka’s first three-cornered presidential race. All past presidential polls in Sri Lanka have had two main contenders and, in most cases, one obvious winner.   

Both, Mr. Premadasa and Mr. Dissanayake have been campaigning with a pledge to end corruption and alleviate people’s economic distress through a renegotiated IMF package.

The Rajapaksas’ SLPP is yet to name its candidate, likely to be a non-Rajapaksa. Some other aspirants, including former army chief Sarath Fonseka and Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, have thrown their hats into the ring. Meanwhile, a group of northern Tamil parties have agreed to field a “common Tamil candidate”, a proposal that some others in Tamil polity have deemed a non-starter.

While seeking votes from the majority Sinhalese electorate that is fragmented following the 2022 crisis, all presidential aspirants will also target the country’s ethnic minorities  — Tamils of the north and east, Hill country or Malaiyaha Tamils and Muslims — for their support.