Colombo, Jun 19 (PTI) The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party on Monday said it would continue to support former arch-rival Ranil Wickremesinghe as the President has ended the long queues for essentials and has managed the economy better.
Responding to media speculation that serious differences have emerged between the SLPP and Wickremesinghe, party general secretary Sagara Kariyawasam said, “The president was appointed by our parliamentary group having a mandate of 6.9 million.”
“At the time, we decided to back him as the most suitable to restore law and order and create conditions to do politics freely,” Kariyawasam said, recalling that Wickremesinghe was appointed through a parliamentary vote where his 134 vote tally from the 225 assemblies came from a majority of SLPP MPs.
Wickremesinghe, 74, took the position vacated by ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after three months of continued street protests triggered by Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948.
“The president has ended the long queues for essentials and has been able to manage the economy better,” Kariyawasam said.
He added that the SLPP party's decision to back Wickremesinghe was based on the recognition that democratic governance in the region existed only in India and Sri Lanka since independence. “We were keen not to let the country fall into anarchy," Kariyawasam said.
He said the SLPP party had asked Wickremesinghe in writing to secure ministerial positions for its members who backed him in Parliament.
“The president would hopefully respond positively in the future,” Kariyawasam said, adding that even if the request will not be met "the SLPP wouldn’t make it a reading to destabilise the Wickremesinghe presidency”.
In an unprecedented power struggle in 2018, then-President Maithripala Sirisena dramatically sacked then-Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and installed SLPP leader Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place following differences over policy issues. However, Wickremesinghe refused to accept the decision. He was reinstated but resigned as Prime Minister in November 2019.
In 2022, Wickremesinghe, then a solitary member of the then-opposition United National Party, was chosen by then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to be his prime minister as public protests raged over the Rajapaksa administration for its bungling in the economic crisis.
Wickremesinghe was tasked to revive the economy, ending long queues for essentials and the raging public anger.
Wickremesinghe, also the country's finance minister, has spearheaded the economic recovery since then obtaining a USD 3 billion bailout from the IMF while implementing strict reforms.
Sri Lanka’s bankrupt economy has shown "tentative signs of improvement," IMF's Deputy Managing Director Kenji Okamura said earlier this month after visiting the country.
In April 2022, Sri Lanka declared its first-ever debt default, the worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948, triggered by forex shortages that sparked public protests.
Months-long street protests led to the ouster of the then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in mid-July. Rajapaksa had started the IMF negotiations after refusing to tap the global lender for support.