President Ranil Wickremesinghe charted a path for Sri Lanka out of its worst financial crisis in decades, but the austerity measures that were key to this recovery may hinder his bid to return to his job in Saturday's presidential election.

Sri Lankans who usually vote along religious and ethnic lines will be keeping the state of the economy in mind when they vote Saturday on a new president.

Two years ago, tens of thousands of Sri Lankans rose up against their president and forced him to flee the country. As the country prepares for its first election since then, many say they’re still waiting for change.

Sajith Premadasa, the leader of Sri Lanka's main opposition party, is a frontrunner in Saturday's presidential election and a win will hand him the top job more than 30 years after his father was assassinated while holding the same post.

Many Sri Lankans say the current government is largely made up of the same politicians who have ruled the island nation for decades through a devastating civil war that ended in 2009 to the economic crisis that began during the coronavirus pandemic.

Election officials carry ballot boxes a day before the presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sept. 20, 2024. Sri Lanka's presidential election will take place on Sept. 21 with over 17 million registered voters to elect the South Asian country's president for the next five years.

Sri Lanka's election this coming Saturday has raised doubts over when its long-awaited debt deal with bondholders will be finalised, if it keeps up with its IMF programme targets and even whether it results in a president inclined to change both.

Sri Lankans go to the polls this weekend for the country’s first election since defaulting on piles of sovereign debt in 2022, when the nation plunged into its worst economic crisis across 70 years of independence.