Colombo: Ranil Wickremesinghe is confident about the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential polls, scheduled to take place on 21 September, the first after the 2022 economic crisis in which he became President. And he took up the job because “no one else was willing” to do it in the first place.
“I came here because no one else was willing to do this job,” he said. “I don’t think that will ever happen in India—people not wanting to be prime minister, not wanting to take over as president. The question is, if they didn’t want to do it then, how are they going to do it now?”
In conversation with ThePrint at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo Thursday, Wickremesinghe said he is solely “Sri Lanka-friendly”, and that he is always open to whatever will benefit the country and help prioritise its interests.
Highlighting the fact that his government has been able to stabilise the Sri Lankan economy and come to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the nation’s official creditors, Wickremesinghe’s poll campaign has been focused on how voting for him as an independent candidate will continue the stability.
Many members of parliament and politicians across party lines are supporting Wickremesinghe’s presidential bid despite ideological differences, giving a glimpse into a complicated election cycle with no clear winner yet.
“I took over at a time when no one else was willing to take over the government,” said Wickremesinghe, referring to him becoming President of Sri Lanka in July 2022, at a time when more popular candidates balked at the idea. “I think it’s history—I’ve made a record,” he added.
The next step after stabilising the economy is securing it and making it export-oriented, he said, detailing his plan for the presidency.
It’s a tough job: the next president of Sri Lanka has to keep the country on its path to economic recovery, manage the IMF’s 2023 bailout package, and manage geopolitical tensions in the region.
“I look after the interests of Sri Lanka, which includes ensuring that we do not allow any harm to India’s national security. That has been our policy since 1987 and we’ve got to uphold it. So we’re committed to it,” he told ThePrint, adding that he wants more Indian investment in Sri Lanka for the benefit of the island nation’s economy.
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‘System change’
Two years ago, angry crowds forced the unpopular former president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, out of office, paving the way for Wickremesinghe to become President. But he also inherited a fractured parliament and deeply suspicious electorate that was distrustful of the government establishment they blamed the economic crisis upon.
Many see this election as a reflection of whether the Sri Lankan voter trusts the government again, but the system change that was the clarion call for the popular uprising following the 2022 economic crisis has already come, according to Wickremesinghe.
“The politics of Sri Lanka broke down with its economy,” said Wickremesinghe. “The system is [already] changing,” he emphasised.
Now that his government has fixed the economy, the next election will decide how the country’s political landscape will be fixed, he said.
“I’m asking not for a change, but what I call a virtual upheaval of the system,” said Wickremesinghe.
A record 38 candidates have thrown their hat in the presidential ring, but many believe the race is between three: Wickremesinghe, running as an independent, leader of the opposition Sajith Premadasa from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the Marxist JVP at the helm of the coalition National People’s Power.
Wickremesinghe is part of Sri Lanka’s political old guard, having served in public office for decades.
Premadasa, son of former president Ranasinghe Premadasa, has been campaigning for equitable economic recovery with welfare schemes to empower all sections of society, and is focused on rooting out both corruption and poverty.
Dissanayake is by far the most popular wild card, campaigning as the outsider candidate representing the change that the aragalaya (2022 protests) demanded.
No clear frontrunner yet
The race is neck-and-neck, and many are preparing for an eventuality where no leader gets a clear majority. Sri Lanka would then have to go in for another round of voting to help declare a presidential winner.
Wickremesinghe didn’t mince his words when it came to the fractured polarity of traditional Sri Lankan politics. He accused Premadasa, leader of the main opposition party SJB, of being ineffective and allowing Dissanayake to become popular.
“No leader of the opposition would allow a second person to rise from the ranks to be a rival,” he said. Dissanayake and the JVP represent change in that they’ve never formally been in power, unlike Premadasa and himself, the President added.
There’s also a lot of international attention on the election in the island nation, following recent political upheavals in both Bangladesh and Pakistan.
One of the IMF’s bailout package conditions was an emphasis on government transparency and ensuring elections are conducted in a free and fair manner—but Wickremesinghe said he’s not worried about that.
“I have no pressure on having free and fair elections because I’m having free and fair elections,” he said. “The people must decide who they want to vote for and why.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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