Sri Lanka is a tear-drop shaped island nation in the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, the tears of the nation have run dry, but the turmoil continues. Since Sri Lanka’s independence from the Great Britain in 1948, the country has fought two major civil wars sacrificing a lakh lives, went through a killer Tsunami in 2004, which claimed another 25,000 lives, and very recently a massive public unrest named ‘Aragalaya’, which forced the President to flee in middle of the night.
Sri Lankan people know how to suffer yet smile. They say it is a cursed nation with great natural resources and unmatched beauty. Every time the nation looks stable, something unexpected happens dragging down everything with it.
Sri Lanka is voting on Saturday (September 21) to elect the new President. The people have high hopes like they have every time. This is the first election Sri Lanka is witnessing since the economic collapse of the country just two years ago.
Proving the sceptics wrong, Sri Lanka has staged a great comeback, stabilising the economy to some extent in record two years. Unlike all previous Presidential elections, the current election is the most complicated and witnessing a four-cornered fight. Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe is seeking mandate as an independent candidate, Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayaka popularly known as AKD, Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the youngest Namal Rajapaks.