Sri Lanka's new president Ranil Wickremesinghe to be sworn in on Thursday

COLOMBO - Ranil Wickremesinghe will take his oath as the President of Sri Lanka at the parliament complex on Thursday after his victory in a parliament vote to choose new president for the South Asian country earlier in Wednesday.

Officials from the President's Office told Xinhua that Wickremesinghe will take the oath of office on Thursday morning and will appoint a new prime minister within the course of the day.

After appointing the prime minister, a new cabinet is expected to be formed in the coming days.

Wickremesinghe received 134 votes in the parliament vote following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa from the presidency last week amid a severe economic turmoil in the country.

Following Rajapaksa's resignation, Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced that Wickremesinghe, who was the prime minister then, was appointed acting president.

Soon after winning the parliament vote by secret ballot, Wickremesinghe addressed the parliament, calling on all legislators including the opposition parliamentarians to unite and work together with him to lead Sri Lanka out of the current economic crisis.

"We are at a critical juncture. There is an economic crisis and the youth want a system change. People want all parliamentarians to come together," said Wickremesinghe.

Out of the 225 parliamentarians, 223 voted to elect a new president and there were four invalid votes.

Another two candidates, parliamentarian of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party Dullas Alahapperuma, and National People's Power leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, got 82 votes and three votes, respectively.

"Regardless of who won, we must ensure that the necessary economic and political changes that people want are met. Overcoming the crisis should be the first and foremost task of parliamentarians," said Alahapperuma.