The Sri Lankan Parliament Wednesday voted interim president Ranil Wickremesinghe as the next President of the crisis-hit country. He won 134 of the total 219 votes that were found valid. The other candidates in fray were ruling-party lawmaker Dullas Alahapperuma, and leader of the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna party Anura Kumara Dissanayaka.
Wickremesinghe was backed by a section of the ruling party that had a total of 145 seats as of the last parliamentary election in 2020. Alahapperuma has the support of the other section as well as the main opposition party that won 54 seats last time round, reported Reuters.
Meanwhile, the Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay said that India will help Sri Lanka to make an “early and effective” economic recovery. To that effect, India, which has helped Sri Lanka with almost $4 billion in aid would, “going forward,” like to bring in “more investment” to help the country build capacities to respond to the economic challenges, Baglay said.
