July 21, 2022

Six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as Sri Lanka’s new President in a parliamentary vote on Wednesday, with the backing of the disgraced former leader’s party.

Official results gave the veteran politician 134 votes, an absolute majority in the 225-member parliament after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned in the wake of protesters overrunning his palace.

Wickremesinghe will take charge of a bankrupt nation that is in bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund, with its 22 million people enduring severe shortages of food, fuel, and medicines.