Sri Lanka Crisis Updates: Ranil Elected As Lanka President

Sri Lanka crisis updates: Ranil elected as Lanka President, Asia Cup to be shifted in UAE

Sri Lanka’s parliament has elected veteran politician and six-time prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the eighth president of the beleaguered island nation. Wickremesinghe got 134 votes while his main rival Dullas Alhapparuma got 82 votes in the presidential election held by the 225-member parliament on Wednesday (July 20).

Ranil Wickremesinghe

President of Sri Lanka

Born: 24 March 1949 (age 73 years), Colombo, Sri Lanka
Spouse: Maithree Wickramasinghe (m. 1994)
Party: United National Party
Office: President of Sri Lanka since 2022
Previous offices: Acting President of Sri Lanka (2022–2022), MORE
Siblings: Shan Wickramasinghe, Kshanika Wickremesinghe, Channa Wickremesinghe, Niraj Wickremesinghe

2022 Sri Lankan presidential election
Ranil Wickremesinghe	Dullas Alahapperuma	Anura Kumara Dissanayaka
Party – UNP	Party – SLPP	Party – JVP
Electoral vote – 134 (61.19%)	Electoral vote – 82 (37.44%)	Electoral vote – 3 (1.37%)

List of presidents of Sri Lanka.

S. No.	President of Sri Lanka	Tenure
1	William Gopallawa	May 22, 1972, to February 4, 1978
2	Junius Richard Jayewardene	February 4, 1978, to January 2, 1989
3	Ranasinghe Premadasa	January 2, 1989, to May 1, 1993
4	Dingiri Banda Wijetunga	May 1, 1993, to November 12, 1994
5.	Chandrika Kumaratunga	November 12, 1994 to November 19, 2005
6.	Mahinda Rajapaksa	November 19, 2005 to January 9, 2015
7.	Maithripala Sirisena	January 9, 2015, to November 19, 2019
8.	Gotabaya Rajapaksa	November 19, 2019, to July 13, 2022
9	Ranil Wickremesinghe	Currently

Wickremesinghe became the acting president last week after Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives in a military plane and then took a commercial flight to Singapore. The mood of the protesters was muted with only 100 people on the steps of the President’s Secretariat. Several protesters who forced the removal of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week wanted Wickremesinghe to leave too, calling him an ally of the Rajapaksa family. “Now everyone must come together,” the 73-year-old Ranil Wickremesinghe said after his victory.

Sri Lanka is not in a position to host Asia Cup T20
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Wednesday (July 20) informed the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) that the board would not be in a position to host the upcoming edition of the Asia Cup T20 due to the economic and political crisis in the country. The development comes after SLC recently postponed the 3^rd edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) due to the ongoing crisis.

According to reports, Sri Lanka, which has the hosting rights of the August Asia Cup T20, has spoken of hosting the T20 tournament in the UAE or any other place. Sri Lanka is now under the new leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe. The protesters say they will continue their “struggle” till Wickremesinghe is gone. The new president will have the mandate to serve the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in November 2024.