Ranil Wickremesinghe: From Sri Lanka’s Acting President To President

NEW DELHI: Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was made the acting president of Sri Lanka after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country last week and subsequently resigned, has been elected president. Today, as voting took place in parliament, Wickremesinghe secured the support of 134 MPs; Dullas Alahapperume of the SLPP came a distant second, with 82 votes. At a time the island nation faces its worst-ever economic crisis and with public anger against the political class rising, the road ahead for Wickremesinghe will be anything but smooth. On ‘The Gist, Nitin A. Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief of StratNews Global, and Dr Harinda Vidanage, head of the Department of Strategic Studies at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, discuss the challenges that lie ahead.