Wickremesinghe wins parliamentary elections to become president of Sri Lanka

He does not expect Wickremesinghe to be able to solve Sri Lanka's problems.

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Sri Lanka's lawmakers voted yesterday for Ranil Wickremesinghe to take over the presidency, hoping he would pull the country out of a crippling economic and political crisis.

"Ranil Wickremesinghe has been elected the eighth chief executive under the constitution," the parliament's secretary general said after the vote count was completed.

Several protesters said a win for Wickremesinghe, opposed by many ordinary citizens, would spark further protests among those angry at the ruling elite, after they spent months suffering severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

Thousands of students demonstrated yesterday afternoon in the capital, Colombo, to protest against Wickremesinghe, 73, who has served as prime minister six times.

They consider him an ally and protector of the Rajapaksa family.

"We are not afraid of Ranil," said a student leader, Wasanta Mudalige.

We will expel him as we did with Gotabaya.”

The other main candidate, Dulas Alahaberoma, was a more acceptable face to the opposition, but he does not have the experience of managing senior positions in a country that does not find hard currency to import and is scrambling for an IMF bailout.

Of the 225 members of Parliament, Wickremesinghe received 134 votes, compared to 82 votes for Alahabirouma.

The winner of the vote will inherit a country ravaged by a catastrophic economic crisis that is causing severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

The island of 22 million people lacks and in April defaulted on its foreign debt in foreign currency to finance basic imports, while the external debt is $51 billion.

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