Colombo: The Sri Lankan Parliament will convene on Saturday and begin proceedings to elect a new President following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was ousted by a popular uprising against him.

For the first time since 1978, Sri Lanka will elect the crisis-hit country's next president through a secret vote by the MPs and not through a popular mandate.

The 225-member Parliament will elect the new president by a secret vote on July 20, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said on Friday.

Never in the history of the presidency since 1978 that Parliament had voted to elect a president. Presidential elections in 1982, 1988, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019 had elected them by popular vote.

The only previous occasion when the presidency became vacant mid-term was in 1993 when president Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated. DB Wijetunga was unanimously endorsed by Parliament to run the balance of Premadasa's term.

The new president will serve the remaining tenure of Gotabaya Rajapaksa till November 2024.

The front runner in next week's race would be Ranil Wickremesinghe. The 73-year-old became prime minister from nowhere in May when he assumed the job to handle the unprecedented economic crisis.

Ruling party to support Ranil Wickremesinghe

Sri Lanka's ruling party has said they would nominate interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe to the presidency when the Parliament elects a new President on July 20.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) General Secretary, Sagara Kariyawasam said on Friday in a statement that the SLPP would nominate Wickremesinghe and support him in the vote.

Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena earlier in the day said that a new President would be elected through the Parliament on July 20 following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Xinhua news agency reported.

On Friday, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was sworn in as interim President till the election on July 20.

Earlier in the day, Abeywardena said he has received the resignation letter of President Rajapaksa, and from this point forth the President has legally resigned from his legal duties and responsibilities.

"Under these circumstances, the constitutional procedure of appointing a new President will now be activated. Until this constitutional procedure is over, according to the constitution the Prime Minister will function in the capacity of the President overseeing functions, duties, and powers of the office of the President," the Speaker told a media briefing.

Abeywardena requested all legislators to attend parliamentary sessions on Saturday.

He requested maximum cooperation for the democratic process of electing a new President and government from all party leaders, state officials, and security forces, and made a special appeal to the citizens of Sri Lanka to create a peaceful environment that would allow all lawmakers to attend Parliament freely.

Under such an environment, with the help of all responsible, the Speaker said he intends to conclude the process of electing a new President within a short period of seven days.

Sri Lanka has been in the middle of a severe economic turmoil for months, which has led to a shortage of basic supplies such as food, gas and fuel.

Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) was routed in the 2020 parliamentary election. Wickremesinghe for the first time failed to win a seat since 1977. He made it to Parliament in late 2021 through the party's only seat allocated on the basis of cumulative national vote.

Unpopular he may be and hated for his pro-Western policies and ways, he still enjoys acceptance as a thinker and strategist whose vision is futuristic. With the island nation facing its worst economic crisis since independence he has wider acceptance as the one with the capacity to steer the island through turbulence.

A man who always wanted to become president, Wickremesinghe had lost two presidential elections in 1999 and 2005.

Without parliamentary numbers of his own, Wickremesinghe would be entirely dependent on the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) member vote. Not a foregone conclusion of their support as the SLPP stays ideologically opposed to him.

The next main contender could be Sajith Premadasa, the main opposition leader.

Aged 55, for long the understudy of Wickremesinghe was the one who turned tables on his former leader. His newly formed SJB ousted the grand old party of Wickremesinghe from all its bastions to emerge as the main opposition in 2020.

Ironically it was his failure to step in to fill the power vacuum mid May which made way for Wickremesinghe to become Prime Minister from nowhere. He only stands an outside chance as the most ruling SLPP members are unlikely to back him. Unlike Wickremesinghe though he starts the race with 50 votes minimum.

Another hopeful is Dullas Alahapperuma, 63, from the breakaway group of the ruling SLPP.

The ex-Cabinet Minister of Information and Mass Media and former newspaper columnist is being seen as a left-leaning political ideologue. Held ministerial positions since 2005 and enjoys the reputation of having a clean public life. His task too would be uphill given his position as a breakaway member.

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, 71, the Army commander who won the military conflict with the LTTE who fought the Army in its bid to set up a separate Tamil home land in the north and east regions, could be a potential candidate.

Fonseka enjoys support among the Sinhala Buddhist majority. He comes out as the only politician who was not opposed by the wider group of protesters who engineered Rajapaksa's downfall. He would however only come into the race if his leader Premadasa opted out of the contest.  

(With PTI, IANS inputs.)