Chanu Nimesha is contesting Sri Lanka's parliamentary election on Thursday as the first openly transgender candidate, hoping to forge a more inclusive and tolerant political culture on the South Asian island.

Who is Sri Lanka’s first transgender parliamentary candidate? - Chanu Nimesha, 49, is determined to make politics more inclusive

Election officials and a police officer carry a ballot box and other voting materials a day before Sri Lanka parlia

High debt, shortsighted economic policies and tourism revenue losses from the COVID-19 pandemic plunged Sri Lanka into its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades in 2022. Nimesha was one of thousands who marched in Colombo that year to occupy ...