The six times prime minister trounced his two opponents, Dullas Alahapperuma and Anura Kumara Dissanayake by a 52 seat majority.
Pollsters had forecasted a neck to neck contest between Wickremesinghe, who was acting president after former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country, and Alahapperuma. They were both backed by the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. The odds were slightly in favour of an Alahapperuma win. He was expected to form a government with people appeal with the main Samagi Jana Balawegaya opposition party which had pledged to support him.
The outcome has opened an old can of worms about horse trading and vote buying which has dogged Sri Lankan elections in recent years. National Peoples Front leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake alluded to this in his speech in parliament soon after the result was announced yesterday. ‘There is a history of members of parliament being traded’, he said amidst heckling from the benches. ‘I believe it was the same this time’.
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran in a tweet after the election said parliament has again shown that it is in the clutches of the SLPP that had lost its mandate. ‘I repeat that parliament must be dissolved. Anura Dissanayake made a good point. Number of those that are publicly endorsed’.
Both Dissanayake and Sumanthiran have called for parliament to be dissolved and for a general election to be held.
It is no secret in Sri Lankan circles that the presidency which has eluded Wickremesinghe for nearly three decades in politics, has been a cherished goal.
Outside parliament there is widespread opposition to Wickremesinghe becoming president. He is seen as a parliamentarian who does not have the peoples mandate and by extension no legitimacy to be in parliament. Wickremesinghe, seen as a proxy of the Rajapaksa family which has dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly two decades, is perceived as someone who will not be the face of the system change which the aragalaya or peoples’ struggle is demanding.
Wickremesinghe was relegated to parliament’s backbenches after leading his party, the United National Party, to a landslide defeat at the 2020 parliamentary election. He too lost his parliamentary seat in the election but returned to parliament on the only seat the party secured which was through the National List.
Aragalaya activists staged a satyagraha in the grounds of the Presidential Secretariat during yesterday’s election in parliament pressuring MPs to respect the mandate of the people.
In the run up to the election yesterday, Wickremesinghe said he will restore the 19th amendment to the Constitution which will allow for more accountability and transparency in governance. The 19th amendment was superseded by the much maligned 20th amendment which was passed when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was president to beef up his powers as executive president.
