President-elect Ranil arrives at parliament
July 21, 2022 09:58 am
President-elect Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived at the parliamentary complex a short while ago to take oaths as the new Head of State of Sri Lanka.
He will be sworn in before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya.
Sri Lanka’s 225-member parliament voted Wickremesinghe in as the new Head of State with a total of 134 votes cast in his favour. Meanwhile, his main opponent SLPP’s dissident MP Dullas Alahapperuma was polled second with 82 votes. NPP leader MP Anura Kumara Dissanayaka secured only 03 votes.
Two parliamentary members had abstained from voting while four of the 223 votes cast by the members were meanwhile found invalid.
Following the parliamentary vote yesterday, Wickremesinghe requested Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to allow him take oaths as the President within the parliament premises.
Wickremesinghe was appointed the caretaker president of Sri Lanka, after Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down after he fled the country on a military plane to the Maldives and then took a commercial flight to Singapore.
