Sri Lanka Presidential Election: The 4 candidates on whom everyone's eyes are fixed

Voting for the presidential election is to be held in Sri Lanka on 21 September, the election being held after the economic and political crisis of 2022 is considered very important because the election results will decide the political and economic future of Sri Lanka. Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to flee the country after the public uprising about 2 years ago, after which Ranil Wickremesinghe took charge of Sri Lanka by winning the parliamentary vote.

This will be the first time after the economic crisis of 2022 that the public will use their voting rights to elect a President. For the first time in the history of Sri Lanka, a record 39 candidates are in the electoral fray. In the elections to be held on Saturday, 1.7 crore voters of Sri Lanka will decide the fate of these candidates. Although in the last 2 years, Ranil Wickremesinghe's government has tried to rescue the country from the economic crisis, it remains to be seen whether the people of Sri Lanka trust him or not.

Among the faces involved in the race for Sri Lanka's presidential election, there are 4 candidates on whom everyone's eyes are fixed. It is believed that the main contest is between these 4 candidates. The first name in this is that of the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is contesting the election as an independent this time. 75-year-old Wickremesinghe is getting support in urban areas, it is believed that the public is happy with his efforts to reduce inflation but there is resentment against him due to the increase in taxes done to take loan from IMF.

Ranil Wickremesinghe is facing the toughest competition from two rival candidates, Anura Kumar and Sajith Premadasa. Anura Kumar is said to be the choice of people in the rural areas outside Colombo, while Sajith Premadasa has the support of farmers, teachers, doctors, and Tamil minorities.

Although Namal Rajapaksa's name has been coming up repeatedly in the election discussions, his chances of winning are said to be very low. In fact, Namal comes from the same political family that is considered responsible for the destruction of Sri Lanka. He is the son of former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Before Namal's candidature, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party was supporting Ranil Wickremesinghe, but later the party declared Namal Rajapaksa as its official candidate. 38-year-old Namal is the youngest candidate, he is promising better economy and jobs to attract young voters. Apart from this, he is also eyeing the traditional Sinhala voters of the party and family, but it is considered very difficult for him to win this election.

President Wickremesinghe is being challenged the most by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party's Sajith Premadasa and National People's Power (NPP) alliance candidate Anura Kumar Dissanayake. Sajith Premadasa, son of the former president and leader of the opposition in parliament, is considered a skilled speaker and is also capable of balancing complex power equations. His election manifesto focuses on 5 important points, first- strengthening the economy, empowerment the people, third- improving government services, fourth- providing a better life and fifth- protecting the country.

His party has also allied with some smaller parties which have the support of Tamils and Muslims. The Tamil population in Sri Lanka is 11 percent while the Muslim minority population is 9.7 percent. Due to this, a better performance is expected in the elections.

Anura Kumar Dissanayake of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is a Marxist leader. He is the candidate of the National People's Power (NPP) alliance. 55-year-old Anura is promising to bring change. His craze among the youth is increasing continuously, he is getting huge support from students, teachers, and the working class.

Anura also participated in the 2019 presidential election but then he got only 3 percent votes. Although it is very difficult to predict the results after the political changes in Sri Lanka in the last 5 years, the voters are going to focus mostly on issues like inflation, economy, unemployment, and corruption.