Ranil Wickremesinghe, the new President of Sri Lanka. Photo: AFP/VNA

According to the official results announced by the Parliament Speaker, Mr. Wickremesinghe won 134 votes from the 225-member National Assembly, far ahead of two opponents: MP Dullas Alahapperuma of the ruling Podujana Peramuna Party (SLPP) who received 82 votes and the leader of the National People's Power Party (NPP) Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who received only 3 votes. According to the rules, a candidate who receives the highest number of votes, at least more than one third of the valid votes will win the election.

As President of Sri Lanka, Mr. Wickremesinghe is facing the task of leading the South Asian island nation out of its worst economic and political crisis since its independence in 1948. Sri Lanka has been through many months of shortages of food, medicine and fuel, prolonged power outages along with galloping inflation. The country is struggling under a severe foreign exchange shortage that has limited essential imports, plunging it into an unprecedented economic crisis. Nearly 5 million Sri Lankans or 22% of the country's population need food aid.