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Sri Lanka Prime Minister to Resign After Presidential Loss

Sri Lanka Prime Minister to Resign After Presidential Loss

(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will resign, days after his party’s candidate lost the country’s bitterly contested presidential poll, allowing newly-elected President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to choose a replacement.

“Even though we have the majority, we are accepting the mandate that Mr. Rajapaksa has,” Wickemesinghe said in an emailed statement. “Accordingly, allowing him to set up a new government, I have decided to resign.”

Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections aren’t due until after February 2020. The constitution allows the option for lawmakers to vote and seek the dissolution of parliament with the backing of two-thirds of lawmakers in order to call early general elections.

Rajapaksa, representing the Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalist Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, won 52.3% of the vote, while the ruling alliance candidate Sajith Premadasa trailed with 42% at the final count in Saturday’s poll. The 70-year-old’s brother, former strongman president Mahinda Rajapaksa -- who enjoyed close ties with Beijing during his 10-year rule -- is expected to take on the role of prime minister.

Mahinda’s son Namal, who is a parliamentarian for the Podujana Peramuna, tweeted on Nov. 19: “The first priority should be to establish a stable government. For that, we need the immediate dissolution of Parliament so that the Sri Lanka people can elect their representatives.”

‘Power of Governance’

Jehan Perera, executive director at National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, said: “Strategically it maybe best to give the Rajapaksas some power of governance because the people have expressed their strong desire for a change.”

Rajapaksa made national security his key campaign platform, riding the tide of disillusionment that grew after the Easter Sunday attacks that killed over 250 people, highlighting the security failures of the present government. He also promised sweeping tax cuts and offered more subsidies for farmers.

The new president’s major challenges will be dealing with an economy where growth has slowed to a more than five-year low of 1.6% in the quarter ended June and a debt level hovering at 83% of gross domestic product.

Rajapaksa is also expected to lean closer to China. During his decade in power, Mahinda borrowed heavily from Beijing to fund infrastructure projects after the war ended. One of them, a port in southern Hambantota, lost money and was eventually sold to a state-owned Chinese firm by the current government in a much-criticized debt-to-equity swap on a 99-year lease.

A veteran politician who leads the United National Party, Wickremesinghe’s government has been teetering since this weekend’s defeat. Premadasa, along with Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando, Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama and junior Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene all resigned on Sunday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anusha Ondaatjie in Colombo at anushao@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Muneeza Naqvi

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.