Sri Lankans have suffered a turbulent few years. Fed up
with severe shortages of essentials such as food and medicines, and lengthy
power cuts, they took to the streets for months in 2022. Those protests
culminated in the storming of the presidential palace in July that year,
forcing former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.
United National Party's Ranil Wickremesinghe assumed the
presidency then and is standing as an independent now. He faces three
other main competitors -- National People's Power (NPP) candidate Anura
Kumara Dissanayake, Samagi Jana Balawegaya's (SJB) Sajith Premadasa and Sri
Lanka Podujana Peramuna's Namal Rajapaksa, scion of the powerful family that
had dominated the nation's politics for over two decades.
Here are four things to know about the election:
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What
is the key issue on voters' minds? |
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Top of voters' concerns is economic stability and growth.
The 17.1 million registered voters want to know how to improve their
financial health and the plans the next government has to target the
corruption they blame for their misery. Although shortages have eased, Sri Lankans still face high
costs of living and a squeeze on public spending as the Wickremesinghe
administration restructures the country's debt to meet conditions laid out by
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout. Sri Lankans largely blame the Rajapaksas for the state of
the economy. The Supreme Court ruled late last year that Gotabaya and Mahinda
Rajapaksa were among 13 former leaders guilty of economic mismanagement that
led to the crisis. |
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Who
are the main candidates? |
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A total of 38 candidates have entered the race, although
there are only four main contenders. Antiestablishment opposition parliamentarian Dissanayake,
leader of NPP, an alliance of left-leaning groups, has captured the
imagination of many voters. |
Competing with him is another parliamentary opposition
leader, Premadasa, leader of SJB, a center-left alliance.
The main candidates have assured voters they will not tear
up the IMF's economic recovery blueprint, but voters are wary of the austerity
measures required for Sri Lanka's US$3 billion bailout. As such, many are
leaning toward positions offered by Dissanayake and Premadasa to tweak the
IMF's benchmarks to provide economic relief to impoverished millions.
Premadasa told The Associated Press that his party was
already in discussions with the IMF to ease the tax burden on the poor.
Trailing them are two candidates who are considered pillars
of the status quo and seemingly out of step with the public: the incumbent
Wickremesinghe and Namal Rajapaksa, nephew of Gotabaya and son of another
former president, Mahinda.
Some, however, credit Wickremesinghe for stabilizing and
even growing the economy. Sri Lanka reported on September 13 that its economy
expanded 4.7% year-on-year in the April quarter.
Saturday's election will also bring Sri Lanka's strategic
location into sharp focus, as Asian rivals India and China have stakes in the
outcome.
A victory for Dissanayake, whose main constituent party has
Marxist and revolutionary roots, is expected to pave the way for Beijing to
regain some of the foothold it has lost to New Delhi during the Wickremesinghe
presidency.
India, according to Colombo-based diplomatic sources,
prefers a Premadasa presidency.
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How
will the winner be decided? |
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Voter turnout for presidential elections typically hovers
in the healthy 70% range, sometimes higher. Traditionally, voters choose one
of two main candidates. The candidate with the majority of votes -- 50% plus
one vote -- will be named president. This time, though, there are four main competitors,
meaning a scenario could arise in which no one candidate reaches the majority
threshold. As such, voters are asked in this election to mark the numbers 1,
2 and 3 against their top three choices. In the event no one wins a majority, the election will go
to a second round, which only involves an additional count. The two
candidates with the most votes in the first round will be pitted against each
other. Ballots that had either one of them as their second or/and third
choices will be added to their tallies. The one with the highest total will
win the election. There is no time limit for the second round. |
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Why
is there anxiety about the transition of power? |
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Concerns about a smooth transition of power have once
again emerged, as they did after previous polls. Sri Lankans are worried that
any period of political uncertainty after a potential second round could
leave room for exploitation by political opportunists within the incumbent
government. |
Courtesy: Nikkei Asia
