Sri Lanka's ruling Podujana Peramuna Party (SLPP) will nominate Ranil Wickremesinghe, the country's incumbent prime minister and the acting head of state, in the upcoming presidential election scheduled for July 20, Sri Lankan media reported on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2022) Sri Lanka's ruling Podujana Peramuna Party (SLPP) will nominate Ranil Wickremesinghe, the country's incumbent prime minister and the acting head of state, in the upcoming presidential election scheduled for July 20, Sri Lankan media reported on Friday.
The decision was announced by SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam earlier in the day, according to Daily Mirror newspaper.
The Sri Lankan parliament will officially nominate candidates to the post of president on July 19. The new head of state, who is scheduled to be elected on July 20, will then serve until the end of the term of his predecessor.
Earlier on Friday, Wickremesinghe was appointed as the acting president after the authorities received ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's letter of resignation.
Last weekend, Colombo, Sri Lanka's commercial capital, was rocked by thousand-strong protests, caused by public dissatisfaction with the government's inefficiency in fighting the economic crisis. Following the unrest, Wickremesinghe called an emergency meeting of political party leaders, who demanded that both the prime minister and president resign immediately. Rajapaksa fled the country and is now in Singapore.
