Over 17 million voters are set to elect their next president in Sri Lanka as the island nation goes to polls on September 21.
The candidates have been campaigning since August and campaigning ended on Wednesday, 48 hours before the polls. Voting will start at 7 am on September 21 and will close at 4 pm. Counting of votes would begin on the same day and the results will be known by Sunday. Sri Lanka’s ranked voting system allows voters to cast three preferential votes for their chosen candidates, with any candidate securing at least 50 % plus one vote declared winner. If this does not happen, then, there will be a run-off between the two frontrunners.
This system was put in place in Sri Lanka 40 years ago and the country has never seen a run-off. However, it could change this time as the elections are a close contest.
The frontrunners – the incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is running as an independent, opposition leader and centre-left Sajith Premadasa, and leftist Anura Kumara Dissanayake – have varying policies regarding the economy, which is the biggest issue of the election.
Sri Lanka’s financial trouble is well documented. The country has been pushed to an economic crisis due to several factors like Easter Sunday bombings of 2019 hurt the tourism sector and the Covid-19 pandemic didn’t help matters.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was the president of the nation, announced some policies that further hurt the economy, like a massive tax cut and banning the use of chemical fertilizers. Sri Lankans rely on imports to fulfil its needs and when it ran out of dollars, essential supplies were severely hit. The government held talks with the International Monetary Fund for a possible bailout as the economic crisis deepened.
People also started protesting against the administration and After months of protests, the Rajapaksas were forced to step down. The Parliament chose Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was the Prime Minister at that time, to become the president and he oversaw the country’s way out of the economic crisis. He struck a deal with the IMF and got several austerity measures and increased taxes. The Wickremesinghe government also passed at least 42 legislations for the country’s “economic transformation”.
Over the last year, the economy has stabilised. But, not all are happy with the govt’s deal with the IMF.
As my colleague Meera Srinivasan notes, “While official numbers appear to scream relative macroeconomic stability, people struggle silently to put food on the table every day.”
The Opposition leaders want to renegotiate the deal. In his manifesto, Dissanayake plans to rework a key debt restructuring programme at the core of the IMF bailout and a pledge to slash taxes that would impact fiscal targets set under it have raised worries about his economic policies. However, he has assured that changes will be done only after consulting the IMF.
Premadasa has proposed a blend of interventionist and free-market strategies, and he has called for adjustments to Sri Lanka’s $2.9 billion IMF bailout. His manifesto outlined plans to adjust some targets, such as changing taxes to reduce the cost of living.
Published - September 21, 2024 12:33 am IST
