Sri Lankan parliament to elect new president on 20 July

Sri Lanka Crisis

TBS Report
15 July, 2022, 10:20 am
Last modified: 15 July, 2022, 01:35 pm

Sri Lanka's new president will be elected through Parliament on 20 July, a report by NewsWire said on Friday. 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka's interim President on Friday until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Wickremesinghe was acting President since Rajapaksa fled the country.

He was sworn in as the Interim President before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya a short while ago, reports The Daily Mirror.

The speaker of parliament accepted a resignation letter from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, having verified its authenticity after it was flown from Singapore late on Thursday. 

"From this point, we will move to constitutionally appoint a new president," Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, said on Friday.

Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore following a stopover in the Maldives, after he fled Sri Lanka amid a wave of unrest as his island nation grapples with its worst economic crisis in decades.

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