Sri Lankan President Wickremesinghe to fight presidential election as independent

Colombo: Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday declared his candidacy to contest the presidential election in September as an independent candidate by depositing money to contest the upcoming polls.

Earlier in the day, the island nation's election commission announced that presidential polls would be held on September 21, ending the months-long speculation over the key contest, which will likely determine the future of economic reforms in the cash-strapped country.

This will be the first election in Sri Lanka after it plunged into economic bankruptcy in 2022.

President’s Counsel Ronald Perera placed a cash deposit on behalf of Wickremesinghe, 75, as an independent candidate for the presidential election, the state-run Daily News newspaper reported.

The president will contest as an independent candidate, Perera told the media after placing the bonds on Wickremesinghe's behalf, the NewsFirst news portal reported.

Wickremesinghe, who has spearheaded the island nation's recovery from the worst economic crisis, opened a political office some weeks ago.

With the deposit, he appears to have laid to rest speculation that he may opt out of contesting the presidential race.

The Election Commission announced that the deposit money for the presidential election could be deposited from 8:30 am on Friday until noon on August 14, the day before the calling of nominations for the election, themorning.lk news portal reported The nominations to contest the election would take place on August 15.

Wickremesinghe's candidacy was in doubt as he was without a solid party, with his United National Party decimated by the split in 2020.

By offering himself as an independent candidate, Wickremesinghe attempts to cash in on the economic turnaround, which he has successfully engineered since the island declared bankruptcy in 2022.

In April 2022, the island nation declared its first-ever sovereign default since gaining Independence from Britain in 1948. The unprecedented financial crisis led President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit office in 2022 amid civil unrest over his inability to handle the crisis.

In July 2022, Wickremesinghe, who heads The United National Party, was elected through parliament to become stop-gap president for the balance term of Rajapaksa.

The government under Wickremesinghe, who is also the finance minister, has set hard economic reforms as dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

This will be his third attempt to contest a presidential election after having suffered losses in 1999 and 2005 as the main opposition challenger.