Ranil Wickremesinghe to be sworn-in as President of Sri Lanka

Ranil Wickremesinghe will take oath as the President of Sri Lanka at the parliament complex today after his victory in a parliament vote to choose a new president for the island nation.

Out of the 225 parliamentarians, 223 voted to elect a new president and there were four invalid votes. Ranil Wickremesinghe received 134 votes. While parliamentarian of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party Dullas Alahapperuma secured 82 votes, National People’s Power leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake got only three votes.  Presidential elections was held yesterday in the parliament following the



resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa from the presidency last week amid severe economic turmoil in the country. Soon after winning the parliament vote by secret ballot, 

Mr Wickremesinghe addressed the parliament, calling on all legislators including the opposition parliamentarians to unite and work together with him to lead Sri Lanka out of the current economic crisis. Mr Wickremesinghe also expressed gratitude to the armed forces and the police who performed their duties in the security affairs of the Parliament in the past few days.