{"id":84441,"date":"2024-07-26T21:08:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-27T01:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=84441"},"modified":"2024-07-26T21:09:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-27T01:09:36","slug":"84441","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=84441","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Presidential Elections to be held on 21st September 2024; Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe among the first to pay Cash deposit to Contest as an Independent Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s 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\u2019s leader, after a mass people\u2019s uprising ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa two years ago.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or People\u2019s Front) since his rise to Presidency through an urgent parliamentary vote, after Mr. Gotabaya\u2019s resignation amid the 2022 economic downturn.<\/p>\n

During his two years in office, Mr. Wickremesinghe has vowed to rebuild the country\u2019s economy with an International Monetary Fund-led austerity and reform programme. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s Power [NPP] alliance Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Sri Lanka\u2019s first three-cornered presidential race. <\/p>\n

All past presidential polls in Sri Lanka have had two main contenders and, in most cases, one obvious winner. <\/p>\n

Both, Mr. Premadasa and Mr. Dissanayake have been campaigning with a pledge to end corruption and alleviate people\u2019s economic distress through a renegotiated IMF package.<\/p>\n

The Rajapaksas\u2019 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. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a group of northern Tamil parties have agreed to field a \u201ccommon Tamil candidate\u201d, a proposal that some others in Tamil polity have deemed a non-starter.
\nWhile seeking votes from the majority Sinhalese electorate that is fragmented following the 2022 crisis, all presidential aspirants will also target the country\u2019s ethnic minorities \u2014 Tamils of the north and east, Hill country or Malaiyaha Tamils and Muslims \u2014 for their support.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka\u2019s 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\u2019s leader, after a mass people\u2019s uprising ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa two years ago. President Ranil Wickremesinghe was among the first to formally …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka\u2019s Presidential Elections to be held on 21st September 2024; Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe among the first to pay Cash deposit to Contest as an Independent Candidate’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84443,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84441\/revisions\/84443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}