COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s parliament will choose between three candidates for president today (Wednesday), hoping the new leader will be able to pull the island out of its worst economic and political crisis since independence in 1948.
But a win for acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, one of the main two contenders but opposed by many ordinary Sri Lankans, could lead to more demonstrations by people furious with the ruling elite after months of crippling shortages of fuel, food and medicines.
Ruling-party lawmaker Dullas Alahapperuma, a former journalist, is more acceptable to the protesters and the opposition but does not have any top-level governance experience in a country with barely any dollars for imports and desperately in need of an IMF bailout.