Sinhalese will vote Saturday The South Asian nation is set to elect its 10th president in its first election since the catastrophic economic crisis of 2022, which saw the country default on its loans.
Months of food and fuel shortages will cause political chaos, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country in July 2022.
Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who replaced Rajapaksa and has since tried to return to the economy, is seeking re-election. He is being challenged by Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna Party (JVP) and Sajith Premadasa of the Samaji Jana Balawegaya Party (SJB).
See how the election will play out, what the leading candidates are promising – and what the game holds for a nation. 22 thousand people.
What time does voting start in Sri Lanka?
Voting will begin at 7:00 a.m. (01:30 GMT) on Saturday in the country's 13,134 polling stations. Voting will end at 4:00 p.m. (10:30 a.m. GMT). Voting is scheduled to begin at 9:30 p.m. (4 p.m. GMT).
How do elections work in Sri Lanka?
- An independent body called the Election Commission of Sri Lanka (ECSL) supervises the elections.
- About 17 million people and 22 million Sri Lankans are eligible to vote. We can vote for Sri Lankan citizens who are 18 years of age or older and registered with the Election Commission.
- Police, military, and other public officials are not allowed to vote in person on election days and vote in advance by mail. This year, advance voting was held on September 11 and 12, the second such vote by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).
- Voters rank the three candidates in order of preference in a voting ballot.
- A candidate needs to secure 50 percent of two first-choice votes to secure the presidential seat in the first round.
- If no candidate gets 50% in the first round, a second round of competition will be held between the top two candidates in the first round. The other candidates are eliminated.
- No second-round voting to determine the president took place. Again, the two ballots of the eliminated candidates are considered second preferences. If these second preferences are for either of the first two candidates, they are passed on to their contacts.
- If two of the remaining candidates are marked as third preference, votes for that candidate will be counted.
- According to the 19th Constitutional Amendment of Sri Lanka, approved in 2015, the President holds office for a term of five years and has a maximum of two terms.
Who are the main candidates?
A total of 38 candidates are vying for the top executive position in the South Asian nation. Embora or the number of candidates was In the beginning 39Independent candidate Aidarous Mohammed Elias died of a heart attack last August.
The main candidates are:
Ranil WickremesingheHe has served as prime minister six times, and took over as interim president in July 2022, after Rajapaksa was ousted. The 75-year-old Mpoora is from the centre-right United National Party and is running for the top job as an independent candidate.
Wickremesinghe is campaigning under the slogan “Puluwan Sri Lanka” or “Sri Lanka Can” and with the message that the country is facing an economic crisis.
But many economic indicators have worsened — inflation has fallen sharply and GDP is rising — and Wickremesinghe has been criticised by his opponents for belonging to the same political elite responsible for the 2022 economic crisis. The current president is ruled by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Party (SLPP), the Rajapaksa family.
Critics also accuse Wickremasinghe, whose policies include cutting social security systems to balance the country's books, of forcing the weakest sectors of Sri Lankan society to make the sacrifices necessary for the country's economic recovery.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake It is the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna Party, which gained popularity after the 2022 crisis.
But Dissanayake's popularity has grown since the outbreak of a mass protest movement – known as Arajalaya (“Lota” in Sinhala) – against then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, signed by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Both were forced to resign.
Dissanayake, 55, has been active in the protest movement and has been widely criticised. $2.9 billion restitution agreement Wickremesinghe attacked the IMF, which resulted in the lives of two Sinhalese being costly.
As the JVP remains a marginal player in the Sri Lankan parliament, Dissanayake’s popularity has increased. The centrepiece of his political campaign is a promise to eradicate corruption, which appears to have repercussions on large sections of Sri Lankan society.
Sajith Premadasa He founded the populist party Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) after splitting from Wikremesinghe's United National Party. Premadasa, son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, is the current Leader of the Opposition in the Sri Lankan Parliament.
Premadasa was an old rival of Wickremasinghe when both were in the UNP, and also contested the 2019 presidential election, losing to Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
His father, former President Premadasa, was assassinated in 1993 by rebels from the Tamil separatist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). But in recent years, Premadasa has tried to court the country's Tamil vote – the community makes up 11 percent of the country's Buddhist majority.
A prominent party representing the north and east of the country, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), has the support of opposition leader Premadasa. In the 2019 elections, a large number of votes were cast.
Namal Rajapaksa The SLPP’s youngest candidate, at 38, is the eldest son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who served as president and prime minister of the country. He is the nephew of ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and claims to be planning changes at the table. However, support for the Rajapaksa family is at an all-time low due to the economic devastation of 2022.
Namal Rajapaksa was Minister of Youth and Sports during his uncle's presidency between 2020 and 2022.
With 38 women elected, Sri Lanka gave the world its first female Prime Minister – Sirimavo Bandaranaike – in 1960.
Who is leading the investigations, isn't it Sri Lanka?
Thus, investigations suggest that Dissanayake may be the favourite.
This included a Sri Lankan opinion tracking poll by the Institute for Health Policy (IHP), which showed the leftist leader with 48 percent, followed by Premadasa with 25 percent. Owner Wickremesinghe is a distant third with 20 percent. Namal Rajapaksa is a distant second with 5 percent.
According to Numbers.Ik, a website that compiles statistics on Sri Lanka, Dissanayake is leading with 40 percent, followed by Premadasa with 29 percent and Wickremesinghe with 25 percent. This is based on data collected online between September 9 and 16.
Or what's in the game?
The economy is undoubtedly a big issue for the Sinhalese in the elections. The country’s economy will collapse in 2022, with inflation soaring to 70% and the currency depreciating by 45%. For months, these people have been standing in long queues to search for fuel, seriously affecting daily life.
Former President Rajapaksa's economic policies at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic are credited with contributing to the island nation's worst economic crisis.
While some economic indicators are worse for Wickremasinghe, critics say there is a cost: IMF loans will mean higher taxes and electricity prices as part of the agreement with the international creditor.
“Because of the erosion of two social and economic indicators, such as food security and poverty rates, people’s development is seriously at risk,” said Rajni Gamage, of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.
Both Empora Premadasa and Dissanayake have said they will continue to negotiate the IMF bailout that Wickremesinghe negotiated last year, with a commitment to tax cuts and privatization. Premadasa, in an interview with The Associated Press, said she has begun talks with the IMF to ease the financial burden on people.
This year, the votes of ethnic minorities could swing the election, just as they have in previous elections. The main candidates are all Sinhalese, but voters come from a variety of communities, including Tamils, Muslims, Muslims and the bourgeoisie.
Empora Dissanayake's campaign is centred around anger over popular support, and he has said he has no regrets about supporting the Rajapaksa government's war against the rebels. Tigers of TamisAn armed rebellion by two Tamil rebels was put down in 2009 by 26-year-old President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
On the other hand, Wickremesinghe is trying to appeal to Tamil politicians to either corrupt Premadasa or support her.
“The one thing that really stands out in this election is the lack of strong ideological discourse among the three main candidates,” said Gammage, of the National University of Singapore.
“The kind of divisive Sinhala Buddhist nationalism that we saw in the 2019 presidential campaign is now more covert,” she told Al Jazeera.
“We hope that for the three main candidates there will be some consensus on the need to continue with the current IMF programme.
“There are small differences on how to do it, or what, and the parameters of governance, and some differences on the role of the market and the state, but not, in general, what we consider to be the liberal consensus.”
When will the results be released?
The electoral authority does not have any specific data on the election results.
In the 2019 elections, the results were released one day after voting.
Or what happens if we can't get it most of the time?
In previous elections, there were only two candidates in a close race. One candidate emerged as the clear winner in the second or third race that was not counted at all.
With more contested candidates and three candidates with significant support, analysts say there is a real possibility that none of the candidates will get the 50 percent majority needed. This could drag out the vote count longer than usual.
