Sri Lanka all set to hold presidential elections on September 21, first since economic turmoil

Sri Lanka is set to hold its presidential election on September 21, 2024, according to a government notice. According to the experts, it will be a crucial contest that is expected to determine the future of reforms in the South Asian island nation weathering its worst financial crisis in decades.

This will be a significant event as it determines the country's leadership and future political direction.

Sri Lanka to hold its presidential elections on 21st of September, 2024.
August 15 is the last day to file nominations. #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/Jfqr6SvC4A

— Manoranjan Pegu (@manoranjanpegu) July 26, 2024

The letter further stated that nominations for the election must be submitted by August 15.

The election announcement is set to end the balance term of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was ousted mid 2022 in a popular public uprising. Meanwhile, President Ranil Wickremesinghe is to run as an independent candidate in the upcoming Presidential Election.

With about 17 million of Sri Lanka's 22 million people eligible to vote, incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe is set to run in the election. After his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to leave the nation and subsequently resign due to widespread protests brought on by the crippling financial crisis, Wickremesinghe, 75, assumed government in July 2022.

Wickremesinghe was chosen by Parliament to complete Rajapaksa's five-year term, which ended in November 2019.

With the aid of an IMF rescue program valued at $2.9 billion, Wickremesinghe has managed to reconstruct the economy, reducing inflation from a high of 70% in September 2022 to 1.7% in June, strengthening the rupee and rebuilding previously decimated foreign exchange reserves.

Meanwhile, economic reforms are expected to dominate the campaign as the country emerges from its worst ever recession in 2022, when the GDP shrank by 7.8 per cent.