Ranil Wickremesinghe to contest Sri Lanka Presidential polls as independent candidate

Ranil Wickremesinghe will contest the forthcoming

Sri Lanka presidential election

as an

independent candidate

.
According to the Sri Lankan news site Newswave, a group of lawyers including president’s lawyer Ronald Perera deposited the

bail money

for Wickramasinghe on Friday morning. Later, the president's media also confirmed the news while Minister Manusha Nanayakkara also announced it at a function.
The bail was deposited after the gazette announcement that the presidential election will be held on September 21 was announced today.

Sri Lanka is all set for its presidential election and it is the first in the South Asian island nation that will hold poll after declaring bankruptcy in 2022 and suspended repayments on some $83 billion in domestic and foreign loans.

The election is largely seen as a crucial vote for the island nation’s efforts to conclude a critical

debt restructuring

program and as well as completing the financial reforms agreed under a bailout program by the International Monetary Fund.
Under the leadership of Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka has been engaged in negotiations with international creditors to restructure its substantial debts and revitalize the economy. The IMF has also approved a four-year bailout program last March to assist Sri Lanka in its recovery efforts.

In a significant development last month, Wickremesinghe announced that his government had reached a debt restructuring agreement with several countries, including "India, France, Japan and China" — a crucial step in the country's

economic recovery

following its default on debt repayment in 2022.
The economic situation in Sri Lanka has shown improvement under Wickremesinghe's administration, with severe shortages of essential items such as food, fuel, and medicine largely subsiding. However, public dissatisfaction has increased due to the government's efforts to raise revenue by increasing electricity bills and imposing substantial new income taxes on professionals and businesses, as part of the government's efforts to meet the IMF conditions.
Sri Lanka's crisis was primarily the result of severe economic mismanagement, exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, along with the 2019 terrorism attacks, devastated the country's crucial tourism industry. The coronavirus crisis also disrupted the flow of remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad, reported AP.
Furthermore, the previous government's decision to slash taxes in 2019 depleted the treasury just as the virus hit. As a result, foreign exchange reserves plummeted, leaving Sri Lanka unable to pay for imports or defend its struggling currency, the rupee.