Main contenders for Sri Lanka's next President

COLOMBO (BLOOMBERG) - The race to select Sri Lanka's next president has begun as Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down after fleeing to Singapore.

The support of both lawmakers and protesters will be crucial for the new leader.

Sri Lanka is going through the worst economic and political crisis since its independence in 1948. The country's Parliament will meet on Saturday (July 15) to start the process of selecting the next president.

Here are the leading contenders for the job:

A lawyer by training, Mr Wickremesinghe was first elected to the legislature in the late 1970s and had an unbroken streak in parliament until 2020, when his party was trounced after the Easter Sunday bombings.

As interim president, he will lead the race if he garners the support of Mr Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, which held a clear majority in the legislature until factions emerged in recent months.

Mr Wickremesinghe, who has been prime minster five times before his current turn at the job, has allies across party lines and is an acceptable face globally - a qualification that will weigh in his favor as the bankrupt island nation negotiates a bailout program with the IMF.

Yet, he's not immune to the anger on the streets and protesters burnt down his private residence over the weekend. He was whisked away to safety and his whereabouts are not known.

The leader of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya party was a member of Mr Wickremesinghe's United National Party, that he joined in the 1990s, shortly after his father and then-President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated by a Tamil suicide bomber.

He parted ways with Mr Wickremesinghe in early 2020, ahead of parliamentary elections that year. Before emerging as leader of the opposition, and a contender for the top post, Mr Premadasa has held several cabinet posts, including that of health, housing construction and culture, working alongside Mr Wickremesinghe and former President Maithripala Sirisena.

Earlier this year Mr Premadasa's name came up as a contender for the prime minister's job. Mr Premadasa's own SJB party doesn't have the numbers to get him to the top post and will need the support of members from Rajapaksa's party and minority parties.

The current speaker of Sri Lanka's Parliament could emerge as a consensus President if there is deadlock over who should helm the country through the current crisis.

He is also the deputy chairman of the ruling SLPP and is known to be a loyalist to Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former strongman leader and Mr Gotabaya's older brother, who heads the party.

The continued influence of the Rajapaksa family, through Mr Yapa Abeywardena, could make him unpalatable to protesters and even some lawmakers.

He has been active in politics for more than 30 years and has held a couple of ministerial roles, the most prominent being the agriculture portfolio.

Mr Alahapperuma is an ally of the former president's brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who served as president for a decade from 2005-2015 and became premier in Gotabaya Rajapaksa's government before being forced to resign in May.

He entered politics when he won a provincial seat in 1993, eventually serving as provincial minister for cultural affairs.

He has been with Mr Rajapaksa's SLPP and was the party leader for his home base of Matara in southern Sri Lanka since 2016. Mr Alahapperuma is likely to be nominated by an alliance consisting of lawmakers from the main opposition, the Sri Lankan Freedom Party and a breakaway faction of the ruling SLPP.

The retired army general is a war-hero in Sri Lanka for leading the military as it crushed a more than quarter century long insurgency by the Tamil guerrilla fighters. He threw his hat in the ring on Thursday, saying he was ready to step up for the president's job if a majority of lawmakers supported him.

A faction of Mr Rajapaksa's SLPP is also supporting him, he said. The former military officer would be a strong opponent for Mr Wickremesinghe. He's appealed to the armed forces on the ground to hold back from implementing the acting president's emergency orders.