Lankans vote for a President to steer nation post 2022 collapse
Sri Lanka voted for its next president Saturday in an effective referendum on an unpopular IMF austerity plan enacted after the nation's unprecedented financial crisis. Turnout was nearly 70% an hour before polling stations shut at 1030 GMT, an election commission official said, citing provisional figures.
The record for voter turnout in a Sri Lankan presidential election was set in 2019 with 83.72%. President Ranil Wickremesinghe is fighting an uphill battle for a fresh mandate to continue belt-tightening measures that stabilised the economy and ended months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.
His two years in office restored calm to the streets after civil unrest spurred by the downturn in 2022 saw thousands storm the compound of his predecessor, who promptly fled the country. «I've taken this country out of bankruptcy,» Wickremesinghe, 75, said after casting his ballot. «I will now deliver Sri Lanka a developed economy, developed social system and developed political system.»
But Wickremesinghe's tax hikes and other measures, imposed under the terms of a $2.9-billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, have left millions struggling to make ends meet.
«The country has been through a lot,» lawyer and musician Soundarie David Rodrigo told AFP after casting her vote in Colombo.
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