Today (20) marks the election of Ranil Wickremesinghe as the eighth Executive President of the country.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed the officers not to organise any event to celebrate the completion of one year after becoming President.
After taking over the country at a time when the country was in anarchy, with long gas and fuel queues, the situation has been completely changed and the country has been normalised now.
Therefore, requests from many parties to organise ceremonies, sources said.
However, the President objected to spending any public or private money for that purpose.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe made an official visit to India on the day he was elected by the parliament as the successor President.
According to the Election of the President (Special Provisions) Act No. 2 of 1981, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who held the position of Acting President and Prime Minister at that time, was elected as the successor Executive President by a majority vote of the Members of Parliament.
In the relevant poll, Ranil Wickremesinghe received 134 votes, Dallas Alahapperuma received 82 votes and Anura Kumara Dissanayake received three votes.
Accordingly, Ranil Wickremesinghe was qualified to hold the remaining term of the Presidency, which was vacated due to the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Ranil Wickremesinghe took oaths in Parliament on July 21.
Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed to the Ninth Parliament on June 23, 2021 as a National List Member of the United National Party.
On May 9, 2022, when the Prime Minister’s post became vacant due to the resignation of the then Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Ranil Wickremesinghe accepted the Prime Minister position.
It was a challenging time when neither the Opposition Leader, Sajith Premadasa, nor anyone came forward to take over the post of Prime Minister.
Wickremesinghe assumed the post of Prime Minister on May 12, promising to serve the Sri Lankan people by finding solutions to the multiple crises in the country at that time.
On July 14 of that year (2022), President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned from office and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Acting President on July 15 according to the Constitution.
After that, Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected to the Presidency by the vote held in Parliament for the Presidency.
International organizations and states, including the International Monetary Fund, have extended support for the work carried out by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to recover the country from the economic crisis.
(dailynews.lk)
