Colombo, July 20 (PTI): Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was on Wednesday elected as Sri Lanka's President by lawmakers, in a rare move that could provide continuity for crucial discussions with the IMF for a bailout deal for the cash-strapped nation but a development that has angered anti-government protesters who renewed their demand for his resignation.
The 73-year-old Acting President and six-time former prime minister won a parliamentary ballot after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid escalating protests against his government over an unprecedented economic crisis marked by acute shortages of essentials like fuel, medicine and food.
Wickremesinghe secured 134 votes in the 225-member House while his nearest rival and dissident ruling party leader Dullas Alahapperuma got 82. Leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake secured just three votes during the voting held in Parliament amidst tight security.
In his victory speech soon after the results of the vote were announced by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, President Wickremesinghe, a key ally of former President Rajapaksa, thanked the two contenders, Dullas Alahapperuma and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and urged the MPs to work together to revive the country's economy.
"The people are not asking us for old politics. I request Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and other opposition parties including former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena to work together,” he said ahead of his planned swearing in ceremony on Thursday.
Wickremesinghe also urged Sri Lankan Tamil leaders, some of whom who were opposed to his candidacy, to join him in rebuilding the nation.
However, the protesters, who forced President Rajapaksa to flee the country and quit, on Wednesday demanded the resignation of his successor Wickremesinghe as well.
"He has been elected against the will of the people. The Rajapaksas have brought him in," Father Jeewantha Peiris, a spokesman for the protest group Aragalaya', told reporters.
"We will continue our protest campaign until Wickremesinghe resigns, he said.
Many protesters insist only a complete overhaul of government will satisfy their demands.