Sri Lanka Crisis : Voting will be held for Presidential elections in Sri Lanka today

The former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and he resigned from his post, now his term is left till November 2024, so the Constitution of Sri Lanka According to Sri Lanka's Parliament will elect a new President today for this remaining term, in Sri Lanka, the people directly choose their President. This is the second time after 1978 that MPs are going to elect a new President.

Since Anura Kumara's party has only 3 MPs, it seems that they have already dropped out of the race. In such a situation, there can be a competition between Wickremesinghe and Dallas Alhaperumma. He himself is the MP of the ruling party SLPP, has been close to the Rajapaksa family till some time ago, so the possibility of a break in the ruling SLPP cannot be ruled out.

In Sri Lanka's parliament with 225 MPs, all 225 MPs including the speaker will vote to select the President. The ruling SLPP alliance has the support of 145 MPs while the opposition SJB has 54 MPs, with the remaining MPs from smaller parties. Opposition SJB leader Sajith Premadasa has decided to support Dallas Alhaperumma by withdrawing his nomination from the post of President at this time.

In view of the public sentiments, more than 30 MPs who have supported the SLPP so far have declared their support for Dallas Alhaperumma, while the remaining opposition parties are also talking of supporting Alhaperumma. Since voting is done by secret ballot, so any MP can choose the leader of his choice, unlike India, there is no provision of any whip issuance or anti-defection law in Sri Lanka.

Parliamentary Secretary General will be in the role of Returning Officer today, first all MP's will be shown empty ballot box then it will be sealed in front of everyone.