Over 17 million Sri Lankans will have a chance to elect their next president on Saturday (September 21) in a crucial election, the first to be held after the island nation’s economy crashed in 2022.

A good turnout is expected, in line with Sri Lanka’s record of high voter participation in every national election. The last presidential poll in 2019 saw a voter turnout of 83.72 per cent

A total of 38 candidates are in the fray this election, Sri Lanka’s ninth to elect the country’s Executive President. Voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m, across 13,421 polling centres on the island, the Election Commission of Sri Lanka said.

Departing from past presidential elections where two main candidates dominated the contest, Sri Lanka is witnessing its first three-cornered race, in which incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, and prominent opposition legislator Anura Kumara Dissanayake — have emerged top contenders vying for the country’s most powerful office. Sri Lanka follows a preferential voting system allowing voters to mark three preferences on the ballot. A candidate must secure 50 per cent plus one vote to be declared winner. In the event no candidate reaches the mark, which is more likely in a three-way contest, a second count of votes will be used to pick the winner, factoring in the preferential votes received by the top two candidates.

As citizens’ economic concerns take centre stage in this election, the three main candidates have promised economic recovery and relief from hardships. They have pledged to take forward the ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme that is shaping the bankrupt country’s policies to restructure its foreign debt with a diverse group of external creditors.

Unprecedented crisis

Sri Lanka’s unprecedented crisis two years ago manifested in acute shortages of essentials and long lines for fuel and gas. While supplies have since been restored — at starkly higher prices owing to inflation — and fiscal indicators have improved, scores of families are struggling to make ends meet amid painful austerity measures.

Two years after a mass uprising booted out President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the height of the crisis, and demanded system change, citizens are hoping that this election will yield “change”, through a leader who can break free from the “old, corrupt political culture”, and will reduce their everyday suffering.

Colombo-based autorickshaw driver I Mohamed is clear about the kind of change he wants. “I am not talking about those big changes that some people ask. I want the cost of living to come down, I want to be able to afford good education for my children, I want my family to be able to eat three decent meals without worrying if we can afford it. That is all,” he says.

Weighed down by everyday strain amidst falling real incomes and high living costs, many Sri Lankans have been forced to drastically alter their lifestyles. Poor families are eating fewer meals, or have changed their diet, cutting out animal protein, for instance. In a report published in April this year, the World Bank pointed to an increase in food insecurity and malnutrition, a doubling of poverty and widening inequality in Sri Lanka since the crisis. Around 60 per cent of the households in the country are struggling to cope with a decline in income, it said.

In a widely shared pre-election social media post, senior lawyer and noted commentator Saliya Peiris underscored the need to focus on both economic development and governance. “The reality is that democracy and governance are tied with the sustainable economic development of the nation. Long-term economic stability is linked to the respect for democracy, the rule of the law, governance, and the rights of people,” he said, adding: “Those who fail to learn from the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat it.”

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