Sri Lanka to witness three-way contest for Presidency

Ranil Wickremesinghe, Dullas Alahapperuma and Anura Kumara Dissanayake in the fray; Sajith Premadasa withdraws bid

Sri Lanka will witness a three-cornered race for Presidency on Wednesday, as the island awaits a new leader and government after an astounding people’s uprising ousted Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week.

Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe; the formerly Rajapaksa-aligned, and now independent Dullas Alahapperuma; and the leftist Anura Kumara Dissanayake were on Tuesday nominated by parties in Parliament, a day ahead of the poll through a secret ballot.

Although Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa had earlier announced he would contest, he withdrew his bid on Tuesday morning. “For the greater good of my country that I love and the people I cherish I hereby withdraw my candidacy for the position of President. @sjbsrilanka [Samagi Jana Balawegaya - SJB or United People’s Power] and our alliance and our opposition partners will work hard towards making @DullasOfficial victorious,” he said in a tweet, pledging support for Mr. Alahapperuma.

Mr. Premadasa later urged India to help Sri Lanka regardless of Wednesday's outcome in the key vote. “Irrespective of who becomes the President of Sri Lanka tomorrow it is my humble and earnest request to Hon. PM Shri @narendramodi, to all the political parties of India and to the people of India to keep helping mother Lanka and it’s people to come out of this disaster,” he said in a tweet on Tuesday evening.

The Rajapaksas’ Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or People’s Front) dominates the legislature with well over 100 seats. But some of its legislators have more recently been sitting “independently” in the House, apparently distancing themselves from the Rajapaksa clan and their party, widely discredited during Sri Lanka’s devastating economic crisis.

The party appears divided on its preferred Presidential candidate as Mr. Gotabaya’s successor. Its general secretary Sagara Kariyawasam recently announced that the SLPP would back Acting President Mr. Wickremesinghe, while chairman G.L. Peiris has pledged support for Mr. Alahapperuma, who was earlier with the Rajapaksa camp. While political sources indicate that the Rajapaksa family is firmly backing Mr. Wickremesinghe, it remains to be seen how members of their party might vote.

The SJB currently has around 50 seats in the 225-member House, following recent defections of some of its members. The opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA), with 10 members in Parliament, is yet to announce its stance. Mr. Dissanayake’s Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has three seats. The Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), a party representing Malaiyaha Tamils with five SJB-aligned MPs, on Tuesday pledged support to Mr. Alahapperuma, as did the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC). The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), which has two MPs from Jaffna, announced its decision to boycott the vote as the candidates “appeared reluctant to resolve the decades-long Tamil national question”.