Do we like them?Do we like Ranil Wickremesinghe?
Our score: 4 out of 10. A real economic rescue job and a decent line on decriminalising same-sex sex, set against a contested crackdown record and an undecided court case.
Ranil Wickremesinghe is Sri Lankan politics' old fox. He became president in July 2022 to finish Gotabaya Rajapaksa's term after mass protests over corruption and mismanagement, then lost the 2024 election to Anura Kumara Dissanayake, finishing third with 17.27 per cent of the vote. His coalition now holds just two of the 225 seats in parliament.
The story that has him in the headlines is a very Sri Lankan one: in August 2025 he became the first former head of state to be arrested. Police accused him of using about 16.6 million rupees of state money on a private 2023 trip to Britain, where his wife received an honorary doctorate. He denies it, saying the invitation was addressed to him as president and the trip was official. A magistrate granted bail days later.
The case has dragged. In January 2026 prosecutors said indictments would be filed in March, then the date slid to July, and prosecutors have also sought British help to verify the invitation. His lawyers say the CID failed to check the facts with UK authorities, and nothing has been decided by any court. Until it is, treat it as an allegation.
The older shadow is Batalanda, a 1980s detention site where a commission examined torture claims. Tabled in parliament in March 2025, the report named him, which he says was only over arranging housing for police officers during the insurgency, and he has said he was “only summoned as a witness”. He rejects the report as politically motivated, and the government has talked up possible legal action. Where that lands is unresolved.
On the harm check it's mixed. In 2022 he said his government would not stand in the way of a bill to decriminalise same-sex sex, saying “We are for it”, which is a real plus for this page. Against that, an Al Jazeera opinion writer says he sent troops against the Galle Face protest camp within a day of taking office and used terror laws against protesters, and Human Rights Watch says his government kept using the Prevention of Terrorism Act and passed a speech law with vague offences.
The good stuff is the economy. He secured a US$2.9 billion IMF bailout in early 2023 and is credited with stabilising a country that had run out of fuel and medicine. IMF officials called the turnaround “remarkable”, though they said many households had yet to feel it, and he got there with tax rises and energy subsidy cuts that hurt ordinary people.