Agencies
Colombo
A record number of candidates are contesting Sri Lanka’s presidential election next month as the country grapples with an unprecedented economic crisis.
The electoral commission accepted 39 applications on Thursday for the September 21 election, including from incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe.
During the last vote in 2019, 35 candidates ran for the presidency. “We have to stabilise the economy,” Wickremesinghe told reporters after filing his nomination. “What we are saying is, ‘Let’s go ahead and finish this job’. That’s why I’m asking for your support.”
The South Asian nation is in the midst of a critical debt restructuring and financial reform programme under a bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
With unsustainable debt, the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a shortage of fuel, medicine and food in 2022, widespread protests led to the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Wickremesinghe, 75, was elected as president in 2022 and shepherded the country through the economic crisis with a series of reforms and an ambitious target to make the country a developed nation by 2048.
The election is seen as a referendum on his economic reforms, which have not affected many people despite improving key economic figures.
Wickremesinghe faces a daunting challenge from career politician Sajith Premadasa, 57, the current opposition leader of Samagi Jana Balawegaya, and leftist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, 55, whose National People’s Power (NPP) coalition is popular among young people.
More than 17 million people are eligible to vote in September.
