Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka's new president 

Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka's new president on Thursday. The six-time PM will be taking charge of a nation bitterly angry at him continuing in power, amid an unprecedented economic crisis.

Sri Lankans have taken to the streets for months to demand that their top leaders step down to take responsibility for the economic chaos that has left the nation's 22 million people struggling with shortages of medicines, fuel and food. While the protesters have focused on the Rajapaksa political dynasty, Wickremesinghe also has drawn their ire as a perceived Rajapaksa surrogate.

The six-time prime minister had never held the top job, but easily won the secret ballot of lawmakers on Wednesday, in order to complete the term of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned, and fled the country after protesters stormed his residence last week.

Wickremesinghe, 73, has wide experience in diplomatic and international affairs, and has been overseeing the bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Lawmakers apparently considered him safer to lead the troubled nation through the crisis, despite public anger at Wickremesinghe, as an example of the nation's problematic political establishment. During demonstrations last week, crowds set his personal residence on fire and occupied his office.

After Wednesday's vote, Wickremesinghe called for politicians to work together and pleaded for the country to move on. However, protesters flocked to the presidential residence instead, chanting, “Ranil, go home."

Wickremesinghe took his oath of office on Thursday morning before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, at a ceremony held in Parliament, at the capital city, Colombo. He can now choose a new prime minister.

As a fitting example of the troubles caused by the economic crisis, a power outage hampered the live coverage of the swearing-in ceremony at Parliament. An official at the Parliament who spoke on condition of anonymity (as he was not authorized to speak to the media) said that the live coverage was to be done by the state-owned Independent Television Network.

Wickremesinghe said on Monday that the negotiations with the IMF were nearing a conclusion, and talks on help from other countries had also progressed. He added that the government had taken steps to resolve shortages of fuel and cooking gas.

On Wednesday, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told financial magazine Nikkei Asia that the organization hoped to complete the rescue talks “as quickly as possible.”

On Monday, in his capacity as acting president, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency that gave him broad authority to act in the interest of public security and order. Authorities can carry out searches and detain people, and Wickremesinghe can also change or suspend any law. The Parliament can regularly review the law and it will expire without its approval.

Presidents in Sri Lanka are normally elected by the public. The responsibility falls to the Parliament only if the presidency becomes vacant before the term officially ends. This has happened once before, in 1993, when the then-Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was chosen by Parliament uncontested, after the assassination of the former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, the father of the current opposition leader.

(Except headline, this story has not been edited by ismatimes staff and is published from a syndicated feed).