Join Us 
Everything is set for the crucial presidential election battle in Sri Lanka. Polling will be held across the country on Saturday.
These are the first elections to be held after the 2022 financial crisis that led to a major political upheaval and collapsed the country. There are 38 people in the ring along with former army chief Sarath Ponseka, but the main fight is centered between the three.
President Ranil Vikramasinghe, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is rising in popularity, will decide the battle. This is the first time since 1982 that there has been a three-way contest in Sri Lanka’s presidential election. Observers say that out of the three, Anura is clearly favoured.
No matter who wins, it seems like a big challenge to fix the collapsed economy and put the country in a ditch. Economy has become the main election issue for all the main candidates in the background of the fear of the 300 crores IMF debt which has become an unbearable burden… the whole campaign is about the IMF debt… no country has come forward to support Lanka after the crisis of 2022. Ranil’s supporters claim that getting a loan of 290 million dollars from the International Monetary Fund in such difficult circumstances is a great success.
But the opponents are complaining that people’s lives have been put at risk and all the welfare schemes have been cut and they have been left on the road. Inflation has increased by 74 percent in these two years as a result of Ranil’s ineffective rule. In fact, the seeds for the financial crisis of 2022 were sown twelve years earlier.
After the end of the civil war in 2009, Lanka went into huge debt for reconstruction and development projects. By 2020, they have reached a situation where they cannot be met. As the corona virus lurks like a tiger cub, the main source of income, tourism, has completely stopped and hatched eggs. Skyrocketing oil prices by 2022 and US interest rate hikes are completely out of hand. The international debt burden has crossed 5,100 crores.
Along with oil, essentials such as food grains and medicines were also reduced to a situation where they could not be imported. Due to inflation, the price of one egg has crossed 300 rupees. The disgruntled people turned against the Rajapaksa government. As he accepted a huge cut in welfare schemes in exchange for an IMF loan, the subsidies on electricity etc. got stuck. The weight has doubled. Poverty has doubled. Otherwise, the country has recovered from the financial crisis.
