News - Record number of candidates to run in Sri Lanka presidential election

Sri Lanka’s elections commission on Thursday accepted applications from a record 39 candidates to run in next month’s presidential election, which will decide the course of the country’s financial reforms to survive an unprecedented economic crisis, AP reports. The commission received 39 applications and all were accepted, its head, R.M.A.L. Rathnayake, announced. More than 17 million people are eligible to vote in the September 21 election. Thirty-five candidates contested the last presidential election in 2019. Sri Lanka's current president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, is contesting the election and is seeking approval for his economic agenda, promising rapid growth with an ambitious target of making Sri Lanka a developed nation by the centenary of its independence in 2048. Inflation has dropped to around 5% from 70% two years ago under Wickremesinghe’s administration.