Sri Lanka Presidential Polls: Perception Favours Anura, Numbers Sajith & Ranil, Namal Under No Pressure To Win
News 18Sri Lanka is a tear-drop shaped island nation in the Indian Ocean. Since Sri Lanka’s independence from the Great Britain in 1948, the country has fought two major civil wars sacrificing a lakh lives, went through a killer Tsunami in 2004, which claimed another 25,000 lives, and very recently a massive public unrest named ‘Aragalaya’, which forced the President to flee in middle of the night. Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe is seeking mandate as an independent candidate, Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayaka popularly known as AKD, Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya and the youngest Namal Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna are three other important candidates in the fray. Promising to eliminate rampant corruption, nepotism, economic inequalities and class conflicts, Anura claims he is just a week away from taking charge of Sri Lanka as its new President. Anura is promising to make Sri Lanka another Sweden, a wealthy welfare nation.