Experts assessed the chances of electing the former prime minister, who has a double reputation, as the leader of Sri Lanka.
On July 20, the Parliament of Sri Lanka will elect a new president to replace Gotabai Rajapaksa, who fled the country on a wave of popular protests. The political aksakal Ranil Wikramasinghe, the multiple prime minister of the country, who shortly before the current vote became interim president, has the greatest chances to get the chair of the head of state.
Ranil Wickramasinghe entered politics back in 1977 and has since served as the leader of the united opposition and six times as prime minister, earning the nickname Sly Fox for his political vitality. Over a long career, this man was remembered as a pretty good pro-Western crisis manager – Sri Lanka’s exit from recession in 2001 is largely considered his merit.
At the same time, Wickramasinghe was not spared allegations of corruption – at one time he was considered involved in fraud with insider trading at the Central Bank, which he himself invariably denied.
“This is a man with a very impressive political baggage, and there are no particularly sharp claims against him, including from the side of the population. And although during the protests his house was burned down, it was rather on the wave of general indignation against the system of power itself, and not against him himself, ”Alexey Kupriyanov, head of the South Asia and Indian Ocean region group at the IMEMO RAS Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, told Izvestia. .
Also important, according to the expert, is the fact that in recent years Wickramasinghe has developed fairly good relations with almost all foreign leaders.
Ranil Wickramasinghe is indeed smart and politically astute, but he lacks popular support, said Ashok Swain, professor of peace and conflict studies at Uppsala University.
“His party failed to win a single seat in the last parliamentary elections, but he went through the back door to become a member of parliament, then prime minister and now president. I’m afraid the crisis in Sri Lanka doesn’t seem to end anytime soon. And without political stability, there is little hope that the country will achieve economic stabilization, ”the expert explained to Izvestia.
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The burden of change: who will replace the fugitive leader of Sri Lanka
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