Colombo

Six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the 8th President of the crisis-hit Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Wickremesinghe won 134 votes, Treasurer of Rajapaksa's party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (Sri Lanka People's Alliance) Dullas Alahapperuma obtained 82 votes while Marxist party leader Anurua Kumara Dissanayake got three votes.

Two MPs abstained from voting while four votes were declared invalid by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.

Suffering a massive economic crisis with no fuel, food and medicine, Sri Lankans took to the streets on March 31 and protested continuously to oust Rajapaksas from power.

With violent protests on May 9, then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned with his cabinet while President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced his exit on July 9 when protesters took over his official house and office.

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Later, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country to the Maldives and then to Singapore from where he announced his resignation two years prior to end of his term.