Anura Dissanayake wins presidential election

COLOMBO (AP)

Marxist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake won Sri Lanka’s presidential election, the Election Commission announced Sunday, after voters rejected the old political guard that has been widely accused of pushing the South Asian nation toward economic ruin.

Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, secured victory over opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over the country two years ago after its economy hit bottom.

Dissanayake received 5,740,179 votes, followed by Premadasa with 4,530,902, Election Commission data showed.

The election held Saturday was crucial as the country seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history and the resulting political upheaval. Contested by 38 candidates, it was largely a three-way race between Dissanayake, Wickremesinghe and Premadasa.

Dissanayake was leading Sri Lanka’s presidential election after knocking out the incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe from the race, as officials on Sunday began a second round of vote counting for the first time in the nation’s history.

Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, was leading with 39 per cent of the votes counted, followed by opposition leader Sajith Premadasa with 34 per cent, according to tallies released by the Election Commission.

The election held Saturday is crucial as the country seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history and the resulting political upheaval. Contested by 38 candidates, it was largely a three-way race between Dissanayake, Wickremesinghe and Premadasa.

Neither candidate has received more than 50 per cent of the vote.

The Sri Lankan election system allows voters to select three candidates on their ballots in the order of their preference. If no candidate secures a majority, the top-two will be retained and the ballots of the eliminated candidates will be checked for preferences given to either of the top two candidates, and those votes will be added to their respective tallies. The candidate with the highest number of votes after that will be declared the winner.

It was a strong showing for Dissanayake, who won just over three per cent of votes in a previous presidential election in 2019, and suggests voters are fatigued with the old political guard, which has been accused of pushing Sri Lanka toward economic instability.

Wickremesinghe’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry congratulated Dissanayake on the social platform X and said he hopes he will “lead with a commitment to transparency, integrity, and the long-term good of the country”.

“I wish Mr Dissanayake and his team every success in their efforts to lead Sri Lanka forward,” Sabry added.

Premadasa has not conceded defeat.

The election was a virtual referendum on Wickremesinghe’s leadership of a fragile recovery, including restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt under an International Monetary Fund bailout programme after it defaulted in 2022.

Dissanayake, 55, leads the left-leaning coalition National People’s Power, an umbrella of civil society groups, professionals, Buddhist clergy and students.

No major incidents were reported during the vote, but authorities declared a countrywide curfew until midday Sunday as a precaution, police said.