Ranil Wickremesinghe will participate in the upcoming Sri Lanka presidential elections as an independent candidate.
Newswave, a Sri Lankan news site, reported that a group of lawyers including president’s lawyer Ronald Perera put up the bail money for Wickramasinghe on Friday morning. The news was later confirmed by the president’s media while Minister Manusha Nanayakkara made an announcement to this effect at an event.
This comes after today’s gazette announcement that the presidential poll will be held on 21st of September.
Sri Lanka is due to have its presidential election and it will be the first since filing for bankruptcy in 2022 and defaulting on about $83bn of domestic and international debt.
The election is seen as a crucial vote in the island nation’s attempts to complete a critical debt restructuring program and implement financial reforms agreed under a bailout by the International Monetary Fund.
Sri Lanka has been negotiating with international creditors under Wickremesinghe’s leadership to restructure its substantial debts and revive its economy. Last March, IMF approved four-year bailout program aimed at helping Sri Lanka recover.
A few days ago, Wickremesinghe announced that his government had reached a deal with several countries such as India, France, Japan and China –a major step towards economic recovery after Sri Lanka defaulted on its loan obligations in 2022.
Under Wickremesinghe’s administration though there was still shortage of basics like food fuel medicine; however these shortages were not as severe as they were before. Yet discontent is mounting over increases in electricity bills implemented by this government and huge new income taxes imposed on professionals’ incomes among others being part of conditions set by IMF targeted at generating enough revenue to meet her agreements.
Sri Lanka’s crisis followed serious economic mismanagement worsened by COVID-19 pandemic which hit tourism industry hardly together with terrorist threats experienced earlier in 2019. AP reported that the corona virus crisis also interrupted remittances from Sri Lankans employed abroad.
Moreover in 2019, just before the outbreak of this virus, the previous government reduced taxes. Consequently, foreign reserves fell sharply leaving Sri Lanka unable to pay for imports or prop up her ailing currency (rupee).
