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Sri Lanka's MPs are set to vote for a new president after their former leader fled the country and quit amid protests over the country's economic crisis, BBC reported.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, currently interim leader, has been nominated for the role by the ruling party and is seen as the frontrunner.

But protesters want him to go too after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned. 

The PM faces a serious challenge from Dullas Alahapperuma, a dissident ruling party MP backed by the main opposition.

Whoever is elected by parliament will have a mandate to serve out the rest of Mr Rajapaksa's term, which ends in November 2024.

Sri Lanka is effectively bankrupt and facing acute shortages of food, fuel and other basic supplies.

The country needs a stable government to continue stalled negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package.

Mr Rajapaksa's administration and family, which have ruled the country for nearly two decades, have been blamed for the current crisis, according to BBC.

He fled to the Maldives last week after crowds took over government buildings, demanding political leaders - including Mr Wickremesinghe - step down. Mr Rajapaksa then flew to Singapore and officially resigned late on Thursday.

A total of 225 parliamentarians are eligible to vote on Wednesday. If a contender receives more than half of the preferential vote, they win the position outright.

It is a three-way contest between Mr Wickremesinghe, Mr Alahapperuma and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the left-wing National People's Power Party. 

Mr Alahapperuma is a senior MP from the governing Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) - the Rajapaksas' party which swept to victory in a landslide in the last elections.

A former minister under that administration, he was among the cabinet members who quit en masse shortly after protests began in April.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was initially expected to run for president, but in a last-minute twist on Tuesday he withdrew from the race, saying it was for the "greater good" of the country. 

He added that his party - which has about a quarter of the seats in parliament - would work towards Mr Alahapperuma's victory. Reports say he could get the job of prime minister in such an eventuality, BBC reported.

Mr Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister who has never served a full term, is perhaps the most contentious of the three candidates.

Some protest organisers have vowed to continue demonstrating if he becomes president, with many pointing out that he has close links with the Rajapaksa family. 

"He came into power saying he was going to hold everyone accountable, the Rajapaksas even, but he did nothing," said university student Anjalee Wanduragala. 

"It's absurd to think that people are going to trust him again."

The special probe committee of the House of Representatives concluded that the CCTV footage of the day when the then Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had invited two outsiders to tweak tax rates a day before he presented the budget in Parliament on May 29 was deleted in a premeditated manner.

The plan to grill Sharma has also been postponed after the probe committee could not find the CCTV footage.

According to an official of the committee, the Finance Ministry sent the CCTV footage twice but could not find the video where the then Finance Minister Sharma invited two unauthorized persons to tweak the tax rates.

The Finance Ministry handed over the hard drive of the CCTV footage on Friday. However, the footage came out to be of June not of May. Therefore, the committee sent a letter, urging the Ministry to send the footage of May.

Though the Ministry sent the whole system on Monday, the committee could not find the actual footage it had been looking for, a source at the committee said.

“Now, the committee has decided to start the process to retrieve the footage,” the source said.

The committee has planned to take the statement of the then Minister Sharma after completing the process of CCTV footage, the source said.

The committee has already taken the statements of the finance secretary and revenue secretary. Both of them strongly denied the allegations leveled against them.

The probe committee was formed on June 6, the day when then Finance Minister Sharma resigned from his post.

Annapurna Post, the sister publication of the Annapurna post, had first reported that the then Minister Sharma had invited a pair of outsiders into his chamber to tweak the tax rates.

Sri Lanka is in the midst of a deep and unprecedented economic crisis that has sparked huge protests and seen its president quit after fleeing the country - but other countries could be at risk of similar troubles, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), BBC reported.

"Countries with high debt levels and limited policy space will face additional strains. Look no further than Sri Lanka as a warning sign," said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Saturday.

She said developing nations had also been experiencing sustained capital outflows for four months in a row, putting their dreams of catching up with advanced economies at risk.

Sri Lanka is struggling to pay for crucial imports like food, fuel and medicine for its 22 million people as it battles a foreign exchange crisis. Inflation has soared about 50%, with food prices 80% higher than a year ago. The Sri Lankan rupee has slumped in value against the US dollar and other major global currencies this year.

Many blame ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for mishandling the economy with disastrous policies whose impact was only exacerbated by the pandemic. 

Over the years, Sri Lanka had built up a huge amount of debt - last month, it became the first country in the Asia Pacific region in 20 years to default on foreign debt.

Officials had been negotiating with the IMF for a $3bn (£2.5bn) bailout. But those talks are currently stalled amid the political chaos.

But the same global headwinds - rising inflation and interest rate hikes, depreciating currencies, high levels of debt and dwindling foreign currency reserves - also affect other economies in the region, according to BBC.

China has been a dominant lender to several of these developing nations and therefore could control their destinies in crucial ways. But it's largely unclear what Beijing's lending conditions have been, or how it may restructure the debt.

Where China is at fault, according to Alan Keenan from International Crisis Group, is in encouraging and supporting expensive infrastructure projects that have not produced major economic returns. 

"Equally important has been their active political support for the ruling Rajapaksa family and its policies... These political failures are at the heart of Sri Lanka's economic collapse, and until they are remedied through constitutional change and a more democratic political culture, Sri Lanka is unlikely to escape its current nightmare."

Worryingly, other countries appear to be on a similar trajectory, BBC reported.

The ruling Nepali Congress has decided to give full shape to its sister organizations till mid-August.

Making public the party’s decisions on Monday, spokesperson Prakash Saran Mahat said that the meeting has decided to give continuity to the coalition till the forthcoming parliamentary and provincial elections.

The party endorsed the report of Local Level Election Central Mobilization Committee presented by party Vice-President and Coordinator of the Local Level Election Central Mobilization Committee Purna Bahadur Khadka and the report of Local Level Election Central Publicity Committee presented by party spokesperson and Coordinator of the Local Level Election Central Publicity Committee Mahat in the Central Executive Committee meeting.

The party has also decided to form the Membership Management Central Committee. Party General Secretary Gagan Thapa will be the coordinator of the committee.

Similarly, the party has formed the Central Disciplinary Committee under the headship of central member Ananta Prasad Dhungana.

Likewise, the party has decided to form the Central Accounts Committee under the leadership of central member Shyam Kumar Ghimire.