COLOMBO — Sri Lankans elected Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake as new president on Sunday (Sept 22), putting faith in his pledge to fight corruption and bolster a fragile economic recovery following the South Asian nation's worst financial crisis in decades.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the National People's Power party, greets as he leaves the election commission after he claimed the victory in the presidential election, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sept 22, 2024.COLOMBO — Sri Lankans elected Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake as new president on Sunday , putting faith in his pledge to fight corruption and bolster a fragile economic recovery following the South Asian nation's worst financial crisis in decades.
The election was a referendum on Wickremesinghe, who led the heavily indebted nation's fragile economic recovery from an economic meltdown but the austerity measures that were key to this recovery angered voters. He finished third with 17 per cent of the votes. It was the first time in the Indian Ocean island's history that the presidential race was decided by a second tally of votes after the top two candidates failed to win the mandatory 50 per cent of votes to be declared winner.
This was the country's first election since its economy buckled in 2022 under a severe foreign exchange shortage, leaving it unable to pay for imports of essentials including fuel, medicine and cooking gas. Protests forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and later resign. "People have voted in line with those aspirations to have different political practises and political institutions. AKD reflects these aspirations and people have rallied around him."
Dissanayake ran as a candidate for the National People's Power alliance, which includes his Marxist-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna party.
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