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Sri Lanka votes in first poll since economic collapse

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People wait in a queue to cast their ballots at a polling station during voting in Sri Lanka's presidential election in Colombo on September 21, 2024. Cash-strapped Sri Lanka began voting for its next president September 21 in an effective referendum on an unpopular International Monetary Fund austerity plan enacted after the island nation's unprecedented financial crisis. [AFP]

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka was voting for its next president Saturday in an effective referendum on an unpopular International Monetary Fund austerity plan enacted after the island nation's unprecedented financial crisis.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is fighting an uphill battle for a fresh mandate to continue belt-tightening measures that stabilised the economy and ended months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.

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