Ranil Wickremesinghe among 3 candidates in race to become Sri Lanka's next President

Colombo [Sri Lanka], July 19: Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe is among the top three candidates for the Presidential election scheduled to be held in the crisis-marred island. The other two candidates standing for elections are SLPP parliamentarian Dullas Alahaperuma and National People's Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Also Read | Legendary Ghazal singer Bhupinder Singh passes away at 82 Sri Lanka's parliament is scheduled to elect a new president on July 20 following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who flew to Singapore via the Maldives, amid a severe economic crisis in the South Asian country. Sri Lanka's main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa today withdrew his candidature for President of the island nation and said he is supporting rival candidate Dullas Alahapperuma for the top post. Premadasa took to Twitter to say that his party the Samagi Jana Balawegaya and its alliance and opposition partners will support Alahapperuma, an MP of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), who is in the fray for the upcoming presidential elections. Dullas Alahaperuma is a senior lawmaker from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and a former journalist. He was a Cabinet minister in the previous Rajapaksa government. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is now the acting president, is among those who are in the race for the post of the President to be held on July 20 in which 225 members of the House are eligible to vote and participate in the secret ballot. Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had offered his resignation after fleeing the country to Singapore. The president first flew to the Maldives after tens of thousands of protesters stormed his official residence in the capital Colombo. Hundreds of Sri Lankans continue to queue up at petrol pumps across the debt-ridden country every day amid fuel shortage, and a large number of people are ditching their cars and motorcycles for bicycles for their daily commute. Also Read | Shiv lingam melts before Amarnath yatra concludes The economic crisis which is the worst in Sri Lanka's history has prompted an acute shortage of essential items like fuel. -PTC News