Sri Lanka’s election commission on Sunday declared a former Marxist politician the country’s elected president, a vote prompted by discontent over the island nation’s response to an unprecedented financial crisis.
Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, 55, leader of the People’s Liberation Front, won the presidency with 42.31 percent of the vote in Saturday’s election, the commission said.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa came second with 32.76 percent of the vote.
Outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe – who took office at the peak of the 2022 economic collapse and implemented harsh austerity policies as required by the terms of an IMF bailout – came in third with 17.27 percent.
Wickremesinghe has not yet conceded defeat but Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said it was clear that Dissanayaka had won.
“Although I campaigned heavily for President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the people of Sri Lanka have made their decision and I fully respect their mandate for Anura Kumara Dissanayaka,” Sabry said on social media.
Election Commission officials said Dissanayaka would be sworn in on Monday morning at the colonial-era Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.
IMF deal
Economic issues dominated the eight-week election campaign, and reflected widespread public anger at the hardships suffered since the peak of the crisis two years ago.
A party politburo member told AFP that Dissanayaka would “not break” the IMF agreement but would try to amend it.
“It is a binding document, but there is a provision for renegotiation,” Bimal Ratnayake said.
He said Dissanayaka had promised to cut income tax, which was doubled by Wickremesinghe, and reduce sales tax on food and medicines.
“We think we can incorporate these cuts into the program and continue the four-year bailout program,” he said.
Dissanayaka’s once-fringe Marxist party led two failed uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead.
In the recent parliamentary elections in 2020, it received less than four percent of the vote.
But Sri Lanka’s crisis has proved an opportunity for Dissanayaka, who has seen a surge in support based on his pledge to change the island’s “corrupt” political culture.
“Our country needs a new political culture,” he said after casting his vote on Saturday.
About 76 percent of Sri Lanka’s 17.1 million eligible voters cast their votes on Saturday.
Dissanayaka’s party sought to reassure India that any administration under his leadership would not be caught up in the geopolitical rivalry between its northern neighbour and the country’s biggest lender China.
New Delhi has expressed concern over Beijing’s growing influence in Sri Lanka, which lies on vital shipping routes in the Indian Ocean.
“Sri Lankan soil will not be used against any other country,” Ratnayake told AFP.
“We are fully aware of the geopolitical situation in our region, but we will not participate in it.”
austerity rejected
Wickremesinghe had sought re-election to continue austerity measures to stabilise the economy and end months of food, fuel and medicine shortages amid Sri Lanka’s economic recession.
His two years in office saw peace restored on the streets, a departure from the recession-induced civil unrest that had led to his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country after thousands of people stormed his compound.
But tax hikes and other measures implemented by Wickremesinghe as part of a $2.9 billion IMF bailout he secured last year are leaving millions struggling to make ends meet.
Official data showed Sri Lanka’s poverty rate is set to double to 25 per cent between 2021 and 2022, adding more than 2.5 million people to those already living on less than $3.65 a day.
Thousands of policemen were deployed to monitor the voting on Saturday.
A temporary curfew was imposed after voting ended, while police reported there was no violence during or after polling.
No victory rally or celebration will be allowed until one week after the final results are declared.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
