The six-time prime minister garnered 134 votes in the 225-member parliament, despite public anger with the ruling elite after months of severe shortages of fuel, food and medicines.
“We’re shocked. He’s a person handling things in a very cunning way,” protester Damitha Abeyrathne said of the leader. “He will start controlling us in a different way. As protesters, we will start our struggle again.” Wickremesinghe took over as acting president last week after Rajapaksa fled on a military plane to the Maldives before taking a commercial flight to Singapore.
“The moment there is a government that we can continue our discussions with, our team will be there,” she said, adding that she was “very hopeful” of completing program negotiations as quickly as possible, with some good technical groundwork done.Before the vote, Wickremesinghe said by the time he joined the Rajapaksa government as prime minister in May, the economy had already collapsed.
“This is now an outdated parliament with a mandate given for an ousted president,” said opposition leader Sajith Premadasa. Populist tax cuts by the Rajapaksas in 2019 hurt government finances, while shrinking foreign reserves slashed imports of fuel, food and medicine.