Published 09:54 IST, November 18th 2019

Sri Lanka: Maithripala Sirisena congratulates Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his 'historic' victory

The current president of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena congratulated Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his “historic” victory in the Sri Lankan presidential elections.

World News
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The current president of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena congratulated Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his “historic” victory in the Sri Lankan presidential elections. As per media reports, the country's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also congratulated the President-elect on his victory. Ranil Wickremesinghe was quoted saying, the Premier said they value democracy and a decision will be made on the next Parliamentary elections after discussing it with Speaker, party leaders and government Members of Parliament. The greetings came after Sri Lanka’s Elections Chief Mahinda Deshapriya on Sunday afternoon confirmed that opposition candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa had won the presidential elections.

PM Modi wishes Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Amongst the first leaders to wish Gotabaya Rajapaksa was PM Modi. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter and said that he was looking forward to working with Rajapaksa. Apart from this, PM Modi hailed the people of Sri Lanka on having successful conduct during the elections.

Read: PM Modi, Dr Swamy congratulate Gotabaya Rajapaksa on winning Sri Lankan Presidency

Read: Sri Lanka: Gotabaya Rajapaksa wins seventh Presidential Elections

Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s list of credentials includes crushing the Tamil Tigers 10 years ago. During these elections, he focused his campaign on being the defence secretary at the time of the 26-year civil war. The revamping of Premadasa's UNP economic policies, during its five-year charge of the parliament, was also a central theme in Rajapaksa’s campaign. Rajapaksa, a former defence secretary and brother of two-time former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, based his campaign on providing strong leadership on national security issues, following coordinated bombings in April that killed at least 269 people. He will be sworn in as the President, on Monday, November 18.