Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the candidate of the leftist National People Power Alliance, won the election on Saturday. Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe came in third, Sri Lankan media reported.
Dissanayake, 55, leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Party, won the election held the previous day with 42.31 per cent of the vote. Sajitha Premadasu of the United National Force came second with 32.76 per cent. The incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe came third (17.27 per cent).
Voter turnout was 76 per cent, corresponding to more than 13.6 million ballots, the commission specified, saying it was “the most peaceful election in Sri Lanka’s history.” Nevertheless, hours after the polls closed, authorities temporarily imposed a curfew across the country to guarantee “public security.” The country’s last presidential election was held in 2019 and was won by Gotabaya Rajapaksa. However, he fled the country in the summer of 2022 amid mass protests over the economic crisis. Parliament appointed former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in his place.
Dissanayake’s promises
Dissanayake has already contested the 2019 presidential election, at that time he received just over 3 per cent of the vote. His victory in the current election shows that voters are tired of the “old political guard” who are accused of pushing Sri Lanka towards economic instability.
Dissanayake promised during his election campaign to introduce sweeping reforms, fight corruption, end nepotism and stabilise the economy.
Dissanayake also promised not to tear up an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that included austerity as a precondition for economic aid. However, he said he intends to change the conditions under the renegotiation clause. The IMF has provided Sri Lanka with an aid programme worth about three billion US dollars (about 2.7 billion euros). However, the disbursement of the loan is subject to strict conditions such as certain reforms and unpopular austerity measures.
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis commented on the news on X:
Sri Lanka’s voters did their duty to themselves in voting for Dissanayake to get them out of the debtors’ prison that their corrupt ruling class along with the IMF incarcerated them. Now it is for Dissanayake to fulfil their expectations, not the IMF’s.
