COLOMBO: Thirty-nine candidates for Sri Lanka’s presidential election submitted nominations on Thursday (Aug 15) as the Indian Ocean island nation prepares for a Sep 21 vote key to charting its path out of a gruelling financial crisis.
The election will be Sri Lanka’s first major poll since it ran out of foreign reserves, sending its economy into freefall and forcing it to default on its foreign debt in 2022.
“The Election Commission believes we will get the support of political parties, media, civil society and the public to have a peaceful and transparent election,” its chairman, R M Ratnayake, said while accepting the nomination papers.
Two Buddhist monks were among the 40 candidates, one of the highest such figures on record, who had registered with the election panel to contest the vote, in which about 17 million Sri Lankans are eligible to cast ballots.
But only 39 arrived on Thursday at the Election Commission to submit nomination papers and seek its approval to launch their campaigns.
