COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's ruling SLPP party on Friday decided to back interim president Ranil Wickremesinghe in the parliamentary vote to be held next week to elect the successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after unprecedented protests against his government.
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam said that their support would be extended to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, who was on Friday sworn in as the interim president until Parliament elects a successor to Rajapaksa.
The party decided to support 73-year-old Wickremesinghe, who was once its arch-rival, despite the SLPP breakaway Dullas Alahapperuma declaring his candidacy.
The former information minister became the first to announce candidature at the vote which is to take place on July 20.
Alahapperuma said he was expecting cross-party support as an apolitical candidate in the presidential race to fill the void for the balance term of the "disgraced" Rajapaksa.
Rajapaksa agreed to step down after thousands of protesters stormed his official residence, blaming him for the unprecedented economic crisis that has brought the country to its knees.
He, however, fled to the Maldives without resigning from his office.
From the Maldives, he went to Singapore on Thursday from where he sent in his resignation.
Alahapperuma was among the group of 10 SLPP MPs who declared independence from the ruling coalition as the political crisis triggered by the economic crisis came to the fore.
Wickremesinghe has just his seat in the 225-member assembly hence would be solely dependent on support from the SLPP.
The main Opposition SJB leader Sajith Premadasa is yet to announce his candidacy.
He has the support of 50 plus MPs.
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.
The party also lauded former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the services he rendered to the nation and highlighted his decisive role in bringing peace to the motherland by ending 30 years of terrible terrorism.
In a statement on the resignation of Rajapaksa, who resigned hours after landing in Singapore on a "private visit", Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said that political leaders in the world of politics mostly attempted to take political power, and relinquishing power and positions was a very rare sight in the world of politics.
The 73-year-old former president resigned two days after the embattled leader fled the country in the face of massive protests against his government for mishandling the economy that bankrupted the country.
Referring to the civil war with the LTTE, it pointed out that Rajapaksa played a decisive role in bringing peace to the motherland by ending 30 years of terrible terrorism.
He also won the last presidential election in 2019 with a historic mandate, the SLPP noted.
The SLPP said the former president, embattled in the worst economic crisis in the history of Sri Lanka since its independence in 1948 had reached that difficult decision and signed the letter of resignation with half of his term remaining.
"In the history of the country, no executive president has left office before the end of his term. It is indeed a difficult decision," the Colombo Page newspaper cited the party statement as saying.
It said the former president of the bankrupt country had to face the complex challenge of saving the lives of his fellow countrymen from the Covid epidemic even before three months had passed since assuming the office of the eighth executive President of Sri Lanka.
Rajapaksa was the first person with the army background to be elected as Sri Lanka's President in 2019.
The Podujana Peramuna mentioned that even the international community had accepted that Gotabaya had succeeded in properly managing the Covid disaster that left millions of people dead across the world.
Sri Lanka's foreign exchange problem, which was in the making due to long-term reasons, developed into a serious crisis in the face of the Covid disaster as the country's economy took a hit due to border restrictions and loss of tourism.
Saluting Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his service as a war hero on the battlefield, as the State Defence Secretary and as the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna also emphasised that a dialogue about the values of an honest man like him will definitely be created through the conscience of future citizens.
The 73-year-old leader on Thursday emailed his resignation letter to the Speaker soon after he was allowed by Singapore to enter the city-state on a "private visit".
On Saturday, Rajapaksa had announced to step down on July 13 after thousands of protesters stormed his official residence, blaming him for the unprecedented economic crisis that has brought the country to its knees.
He, however, fled to the Maldives without resigning from his office.
From Maldives, he went to Singapore on Thursday.
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.