Lanka's acting Prez says he was not part of Rajapaksa administration

Colombo: Ahead of Wednesday's presidential election, Sri Lanka's acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe has distanced himself from the disgraced Rajapaksa government, saying he was not in the "same administration" and was appointed to "handle the economy" of the bankrupt country.

Wickremesinghe, 73, on Tuesday was among three candidates proposed by lawmakers for Wednesday's presidential election to pick Rajapaksa's successor.

The 225-member Parliament will elect the next president who will complete the remaining tenure of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned last week.

There's growing discontent brewing amongst the public over Wickremesinghe's presidential nomination, who many consider to be more of the same, since he was part of the previous Rajapaksa administration.

I'm not the same, people know that I came here to handle the economy, Wickremesinghe told CNN in an interview on Monday, as he sought to distance himself from Rajapaksa, the person under whom he had worked for the past two months torescue the crisis-hit Sri Lankan economy.

Wickremesinghe said the erstwhile Rajapaksa regime was covering up facts about the country's crippling financial crisis, and assured the island nation's beleaguered economy would stabilise by the end of next year.