Sri Lanka is to hold a presidential election on September 21, announces the country's election commission. A hot election issue is expected to be how the country can recover from a deep economic crisis.
The current president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, is expected to get at least two opponents. It will be the first election since 2022 when Sri Lanka declared itself bankrupt and stopped paying back multi-billion loans.
The country's currency and growth had then plummeted to the bottom, leading to a shortage of such things as food and medicine. This in turn led to social unrest and protests. In 2022, the GDP decreased by 7.8 percent.