Parliament is meeting at 10.00 a.m. today (July 19) to accept nominations for the office of President which remains vacant following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week.

The Secretary-General of Parliament is calling nominations for the vote in the House to elect a new President, pursuant to the provisions of the Presidential Elections (Special Provisions) Act, No. 02 of 1981.

A parliamentary vote is scheduled for tomorrow (July 20) to elect a Member of Parliament, who is qualified to be elected to as the Head of State, to hold office for the unexpired period of the term of office of the President vacating office.

Four frontrunners including Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe have already entered the race to become the next President of the country. SLPP MP Dullas Alahapperuma, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and NPP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake are among the other three contestants.

Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is the oldest of them, embarked on active politics in mid-1970s representing the United National Party (UNP). He entered the parliament in 1977. Wickremesinghe has been the leader of the UNP since 1994. The 73-year-old has held the office of prime minister six times although he never completed a term.

The leader of main opposition Sajith Premadasa, who first represented the parliament in 2000, was appointed the deputy Minister of Health the following year. The 55-year-old was a presidential candidate in the 2019 election, opposite former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and was polled second. He was selected as the leader of the UNP-led alliance Samagi Jana Balawegaya in 2020, hence became the prime ministerial candidate. However, Wickremesinghe and Premadasa contested the 2020 parliamentary elections separately due to failed negotiations.

Meanwhile, SLPP MP Alahapperuma, who was first elected to the parliament in 1994, served as a minister in the administration of former President Rajapaksa. He now sits independently in the parliament.

After Alahapperuma announced his wish to run for presidency last week, the SLPP remains divided on the candidate it would back in the election. SLPP’s general secretary Sagara Kariyawasam openly endorsed Acting President Wickremesinghe, while the party’s chairman Prof. G.L. Peiris stressed that the SLPP should support the party’s own candidate.

Meanwhile, the leader of National People’s Power (NPP) MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who has been representing the parliament since 2000, has also entered the presidential race.