Ranil Wickremesinghe sworn in as Sri Lankan president

Ranil Wickremesinghe who has been elected as the Eighth Executive President under the Constitution speaks to media as he leaves a Buddhist temple, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka July 20, 2022. REUTERS/ Dinuka Liyanawatte

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the new president of Sri Lanka by the chief justice of the country on Thursday, the president's media office said.

Wickremesinghe won 134 votes in the 225 member parliament in a vote count on Wednesday, after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned from his post last week.

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe in Colombo, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)