evidence: During Wickremesinghe’s presidency, Sri Lanka made progress in obtaining the IMF extended fund facility and met all IMF conditionalities except those relating to debt sustainability. The main issue in this regard is the unwillingness of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to provide guarantees on debt restructuring. Wickremesinghe pushed through several reforms, including reversing the disastrous tax policy of the previous president. However, he continues to crack down on civil liberties and is using IMF conditionalities as an alibi for extra-constitutional maneuvers to postpone elections. This is an extremely dangerous trend for both democratic governance and the economic recovery of the country. Postponing elections would trigger a popular backlash, particularly against the IMF, and could lead to further cycles of violence. [...] Regarding economic recovery, the IMF EFF program aims to restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, while also accelerating structural reforms of the economy. The government needs to achieve a broad local consensus on economic reforms to ensure that these reforms benefit all parts of Sri Lankan society. Failing to do so will result in more protests and violence. To achieve this consensus, the country needs the president to act as a consensus builder instead of being led by the preferences of a single political party and its interests. The IMF and other international partners should also demand governance reforms that address high-level corruption as part of the overall reform package. The IMF should be transparent about the conditions for its assistance and make them public, as long as they do not affect debt restructuring negotiations.