A couple walks past an election poster showing a portrait of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, September 16, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

A group of election observers from the European Union and the Commonwealth have arrived in Sri Lanka to monitor the presidential election on Saturday (September 21, 2024).

A total of 116 representatives from various international election observation organisations have arrived in Sri Lanka to monitor the upcoming presidential election, the Newsfirst news portal reported on Friday (September 20, 2024)

Among the observers, 78 are from the European Union (EU), marking a substantial contingent from the EU election observation mission.

The EU has previously done election monitoring in Sri Lanka six times with the last being at the presidential election of 2019.

Additionally, 22 representatives from the Commonwealth have also arrived to participate in the monitoring activities.

The Asian Election Observation Network has sent nine observers, while seven representatives from South Asian regional countries have joined the election monitoring process this year, following an invitation from the Election Commission.

These international observers have been deployed across twenty-five districts to carry out their monitoring duties.

The National Election Commission has assured that all necessary measures have been taken to ensure the safety and security of the observers, with local police stations being duly informed of their presence and responsibilities.

Over 17.1 million registered voters are eligible to vote at the election for a direct vote to elect an executive president for a 5-year term. This will be the first election since the worst economic crisis in the country in 73 years.

Polling will take place between 7 am to 5 pm on Saturday (September 21, 2024) at over 13,400 polling stations.

The incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and the Marxist JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake are the front runners with over 17 million of the island’s 21 million population eligible to vote.

Colombo:

Sri Lanka, which is slowly recovering from its worst-ever economic crisis, will vote to elect the next President on Saturday. The cash-strapped island nation is currently being led by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is seeking a re-election to continue with bold reforms to help revive the economy.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75, is seeking a fresh mandate after claiming credit for stabilising the economy and bringing an end to months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.

In 2022, when Ranil Wickremesinghe took charge as President, Sri Lanka was dealing with civil unrest spurred by the economic crisis. There were protests across the nation which led to thousands storming the Presidential palace which was then occupied by Mr Wickremesinghe’s predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country. Mr Wickremesinghe took charge and restored calm and helped revived the economy by taking some tough decisions.

The 2024 election is key to deciding the future of reforms in the economically fragile nation.

Speaking with NDTV, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Thursday that his vision for future ties with India holds a stronger economic relationship. “We want to encourage more investments from India and more tourists from India. We are working together with India on infrastructure projects like the Trincomalee Harbour,” he said.

“I took over as President when the country was in utter chaos and no one thought we could stabilise this fast. But I knew from experience that we could go ahead provided we had the support of the International Monetary Fund and our creditors,” the President said, adding that “I have ensured we come back to normalcy. Law and order is functioning, democracy is functioning and although we have stabilised the economy, now we have to decide our path. Are we going to get into the same old ways or are we working towards (building) a strong export economy? I have asked for a mandate to go ahead.”

However, Mr Wickremesinghe faces a tough electoral battle from two contenders. In total, President Wickremesinghe is among 38 candidates contesting Sri Lanka’s presidential election.

This year’s election is dominated by two major alliances, the SJB (Samagi Jana Balawegaya) and the NPP (National People’s Power), apart from various smaller parties and independent candidates.

Here are the 5 main contenders in the 2024 Sri Lanka Elections:

75-year-old Ranil Wickremesinghe is a lawyer who has served as prime minister for a record six times. His party holds only one seat in parliament and will need to drum up support from key parties to bolster his chances.

As the leader of the United National Party or UNP, he took office in July 2022 after widespread protests unleashed by the debilitating financial crisis forced his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee Sri Lanka and later resign.

The Sri Lankan Parliament elected Ranil Wickremesinghe to serve out the rest of the five-year term of Mr Rajapaksa, who took office in 2019.

Ranil Wickremesinghe’s re-election bid failed to get formal backing from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the party with the most seats in the 225-member parliament, but the support of more than 90 lawmakers puts him in strong position. He is contesting as an independent candidate.

The 57 year-old Opposition leader and son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, he leads the Samagi Jana Balawegaya or SJB that separated from Mr Wickremesinghe’s UNP in 2020.

His centrist, more left-leaning party has called for changes to the $2.9 billion bailout programme with the International Monetary Fund and outlined plans to adjust some targets, such as changing taxes to reduce the cost of living.

Premadasa favours a mix of interventionist and free-market economic policies.

The 55-year-old leader, who holds just three seats in parliament, stands for tough anti-corruption measures and pro-poor policies have given a popular boost to his candidacy.

He will contest under the National People’s Power or NPP coalition, which includes his Marxist-leaning party People’s Liberation Front or PLF. His party has traditionally backed stronger state intervention and more closed market economic policies.

A pre-election opinion survey showed Mr Dissanayake was leading in voting preferences at 36%, followed by Mr Premadasa and Mr Wickremesinghe at third.

The 38-year-old leader is a scion of the powerful Rajapaksa family that produced two presidents – his father Mahinda and uncle Gotabaya – Namal is a surprise entrant, as the candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna or SLPP, founded by another uncle, Basil.

He faces the daunting task of keeping the party unified to counter Mr Wickremesinghe’s chances of winning.

40-year-old Nuwan Bopage is the presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Struggle Alliance or PSA. He hopes to tap into the remnants of the massive people’s uprising that deposed Gotabaya Rajapaksa two years ago.

He has taken a strong anti-corruption stance, backs more pro-poor policies and opposes Sri Lanka’s alignment with the IMF programme.
 

The people of Sri Lanka are set to vote for a new president on Saturday in an election that will be key in deciding the future reforms in the country that is reeling under an unprecedented economic crisis. 

More than 17 million Sri Lankans are eligible to vote for their next president, who will serve a five-year term.

Who all are nominated?

The Sri Lankan elections panel approved the nominations of 39 candidates, including the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe. One candidate died later. Among the frontrunners are Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, leader of the National People’s Power party, and leader of opposition Sajith Premadasa from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya party.

How did the candidates campaign?

The current president, Mr Wickremesinghe, held his first rally on August 17 in the historic city of Anuradhapura. It was the first out of nearly a 100 of his rallies. His key rivals also held about a dozen rallies each.

The campaigning ended at midnight on Wednesday, 48 hours before election day.

What is the election process?

Sri Lanka follows the first-past-the-post system, allowing voters to choose three candidates. The candidate securing at least 50% or more of the overall vote is declared the winner.

In case no candidate gets 50% votes in the first round, there is a legal provision for a run-off between the two frontrunners. Given the close race, Sri Lanka could see a second count for the first time in four decades since the introduction of the voting system.

How will the votes be counted?

Sri Lankans will cast their votes at thousands of polling stations amid tight security. Government employees will count them afterwards under the supervision of Election Commission officials, election monitors and representatives of candidates.

Voting will begin at 7 AM local time and end at 4 PM. Counting will start shortly after.

When will the results be declared?

The winner will formally be announced by the Election Commission, probably on Sunday. The oath taking ceremony usually takes place on the same day.

Colombo:

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said his vision for future ties with India holds a stronger economic relationship. Sri Lanka will vote to elect its next President in two days and Mr Wickremesinghe is seeking another term in office. The elections will be key in deciding the future reforms in the country, currently reeling under an unprecedented economic crisis.

“We need to have a stronger economic relationship. Our social and cultural relationship has been going on for 1,000 years,” Mr Wickremesinghe told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

“We want to encourage more investments from India and more tourists from India. We are working together with India on infrastructure projects like the Trincomalee Harbour,” he added.

He further said, his priority areas of focus with regards to ties with India includes, renewable energy, for which there is a big demand in India. “When the Singapore-India cables come we can get on to that,” he said. It is understood that India and Singapore have planned to connect their power grids through an undersea cable via Andaman and Nicobar, which will allow India to sell renewable energy to Singapore.

Sri Lanka’s economy suffered a near total collapse in 2022 after a severe shortage of foreign currency reserves. The island country was unable to finance even the most essential imports, causing massive social unrest. Then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country, which led to then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe being elected as president.

“I took over as President when the country was in utter chaos and no one thought we could stabilise this fast. But I knew from experience that we could go ahead provided we had the support of the International Monetary Fund and our creditors,” the President said.

“I have ensured we come back to normalcy. Law and order is functioning, democracy is functioning and although we have stabilised the economy, now we have to decide our path. Are we going to get into the same old ways or are we working towards (building) a strong export economy? I have asked for a mandate to go ahead,” Mr Wickremesinghe said.

The leader also talked about his key rivals. “I find my two main opponents are not aware about the economy. One claims to be a market economy, he’s giving everything virtually away for free. Where is the money for that? We don’t have the money for that.”

One of his key rivals is Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, who is the leader of a once-marginal Marxist party tarnished by its violent past. The party led two failed uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead, and won less than four per cent of the vote in the last parliamentary elections. 

Sri Lanka’s crisis has proven an opportunity for Mr Dissanayaka, who has seen a surge of support.

According to news agency AFP, fellow opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, once dismissed as the princeling dynast of a former president assassinated in 1993 during the country’s decades-long civil war, is also favoured to make a strong showing. He has campaigned on a pledge to secure concessions from the IMF.

“The Samagi Jana Balawegaya wants to give everything away for free. Only a headache is left for them to give away for free. The National People’s Power doesn’t know which way to go, their economic policies are a mismatch. They are playing on the difficulties of the people but they don’t give an answer about how they will get out of it,” he said.

In light of Saturday’s elections, the president also outlined his own agenda. “I want to make our economy export oriented. That will bring prosperity to the people. I’ve already brought in the economic transformation act in parliament. We have set benchmarks for the country to achieve. If we achieve those, we will become an export oriented economy. When we restructure it, we have to look at the areas in which we can take off, like modernising agriculture and renewable energy.”

He said he has also envisioned a “better educated and trained workforce to become part of supply chains and bring manufacturing to Sri Lanka”.
 

Jaffna MP M.A. Sumanthiran. File
| Photo Credit: R. Ragu

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), a prominent political party representing Tamils of Sri Lanka’s north and east, has said it would consider backing a presidential aspirant who agrees to its demand for a governance structure based on a federal model.

The party’s position, which reiterates its long-standing demand for a just political solution to the civil war-scarred country’s Tamil question, comes ahead of Sri Lanka’s presidential polls scheduled to be held on September 21. It reflects one position from within the island’s visibly divided Tamil polity.

While some, including from the ITAK, its former alliance partners (People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), and former Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, are backing a “common Tamil candidate” in the crucial national election, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) is calling for a boycott of the polls.

Addressing a media conference in the northern Vavuniya district last weekend, ITAK’s Jaffna MP M.A. Sumanthiran said: “As the main party representing the Tamil people, we are telling all candidates openly that we need a governance structure with power devolution based on a federal model, in a merged north and east. In short, this is our political position.”

Three main contenders, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, and opposition parliamentarian leading a third force Anura Kumara Dissanayake are vying for the country’s top office, in the first election after Sri Lanka’s people’s uprising of 2022 amid a devastating economic crash. All three candidates have visited the north recently and promised to devolve power and develop the region’s economy. However, ITAK members have said they are awaiting the manifestos of the candidates to evaluate their specific proposals, given that the existing 13^th Amendment is widely deemed inadequate by most Tamil parties.

The legislation, which followed the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, guarantees some power to the provincial councils. But in the nearly 40 years since its enactment, it is yet to be fully implemented, prompting some Tamil actors to seek a new, “meaningful” arrangement of power sharing between the Centre and the provinces. Despite a long civil war, and the passing of 15 years since its gory end, Tamils are still left with their historic demand for justice and equality, through substantive political rights.  

In an editorial on the need for a political solution to Sri Lanka’s Tamil speaking people, leading Tamil newspaper Virakesari on Tuesday outlined key initiatives taken in the past in this regard. “Although the Provincial Council system was set up as a solution to the ethnic conflict, some of the powers guaranteed are yet to be devolved [to the provincial councils) till date. Land and police powers have not been provided. Therefore, in the view of Tamil speaking people of the north and east, the reality is that the 13^th Amendment has not fulfilled their political aspirations,” it said, asking presidential aspirants to spell out their proposal and work towards it with the people’s mandate.