Sri Lanka PM’s party nominates Premadasa as its presidential candidate

Sajith Premadasa deputy leader and Kabir Hashim senior member of the deposed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe-led United National Party, talk as they leave the Supreme Court after filing a petition against the President Maithripala Sirisena's decision to sack the parliament, in Colombo, Sri Lanka on November 12, 2018. (REUTERS File Photo)

COLOMBO, September 26 (Reuters): Sri Lanka's housing minister and deputy leader of the ruling United National Party (UNP) Sajith Premadasa will run as its candidate in the Nov. 16 presidential poll, the party said on Wednesday, in a move seen as attempting to win over the island nation's influential Buddhist-majority vote.

Premadasa, 52, son of former president Ranasinghe Premadasa who was assassinated by a Tamil Tiger rebel suicide bomber in 1993, is popular among the rural poor and is seen as a formidable candidate against opposition candidate, wartime defence chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa.