Sri Lanka: Marxist-Leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake Wins Presidential Polls. All You Need To Know

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is scheduled to be sworn in on Monday, in his initial response said the unity of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and all Sri Lankans is the bedrock of the new beginning.

Sri Lanka on Sunday elected Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake, putting faith in the 55-year-old National People’s Power (NPP) leader to fight corruption and boost the fragile economic marred by the 2022 economic slowdown.

The country's election commission on Sunday announced that Dissanayake secured 42.31% of the vote in the presidential election, with opposition leader Sajith Premadasa finishing second. Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe came at the third position.

The election had gone for a second round of counting after no candidate had secured over 50 per cent vote needed to be declared the winner. The country voted on Saturday to elect a new president in the first election since the 2022 economic crisis, the worst in the last 73 years.

Dissanayake is scheduled to be sworn in on Monday to become Sri Lanka’s 10th president.

Responding to his victory in the Sri Lankan polls, he said, "The dream we have nurtured for centuries is finally coming true. This achievement is not the result of any single person’s work, but the collective effort of hundreds of thousands of you. Your commitment has brought us this far, and for that, I am deeply grateful. This victory belongs to all of us."

He also said that the unity of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and all Sri Lankans is the bedrock of the new beginning.

Who Is Anura Kumara Dissanayake?

Anura Kumara Dissanayake was once considered a fringe leader and his party won less than four percent of the vote in parliamentary elections four years ago. However, the support to his party surged after the economic meltdown which forced widespread hardships among the people.

The leader of the Marxist JVP’s broader front NPP was declared the winner after he lead with over 1.3 million votes against his rival.

Dissanayake was born to a working-class family in Thambuttegama, around 100 km from Colombo. He comes from a family which was not politically active. His father was an office aide in the Government Survey Department and his mother was a homemaker.

Popularly known by his initials 'AKD', Dissanayake entered leftist politics during his student days. He had been very decisive and confident in the pledges he made carrying the hopes of the nation. 

Dissanayake-led National People’s Power (NPP), emerged from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, a Marxist-oriented group that has historically focused on social justice and anti-corruption. 

In the 2020 parliamentary election, Dissanayake’s NPP had only garnered 3 per cent of the votes.

How Sri Lanka Elects Its President?

Polling was conducted across more than 13,400 stations in 22 electoral districts and saw a participation of around 75% of the country's 17 million eligible voters. 

Sri Lanka's presidential election uses a preferential voting system, where voters rank up to three candidates in order of preference. 

If a candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the first-choice votes, which is an absolute majority, that person is declared the winner. 

If any candidate doesn't bag a majority, a second round of counting will commence, with second and third-choice votes then taken into account. 

It was the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that the presidential race was decided by a second round of counting after the top two candidates failed to win a majority of votes.