NPP’s Dissanayake poised to become next Sri Lankan President after early lead in polls

SRILANKA, SEPT 22 : Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the Marxist JVP’s broader front, the National People’s Power (NPP), has consolidated his lead in Sri Lanka’s presidential election and is poised to become the island nation’s next head of state.

The ongoing count in Saturday’s poll showed Dissanayaka at 52% with just over a million votes counted, well above his nearest rivals. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was in second, with 23.3% of the vote.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office at the peak of the 2022 economic collapse and imposed tough austerity policies per the terms of an IMF bailout, was trailing at a distant third with around 16% of the vote.

The voter turnout was around 75%, lower than the 83% polled in the previous presidential election held in November 2019.

Dissanayake won 21 of the 22 postal district votes while bagging several results declared thus far from the 168 geographical parliamentary seats from different districts.

Wickremesinghe is yet to concede defeat but his Foreign Minister Ali Sabry on X congratulated Dissanayake for his win.

“After a long and arduous campaign, the results of the election are now clear. Though I heavily campaigned for President Ranil Wickremasinghe, the people of Sri Lanka have made their decision, and I fully respect their mandate for Anura Kumara Dissanayake. In a democracy, it is crucial to honour the will of the people, and I do so without hesitation,” Sabry wrote on X.

“I extend my sincere congratulations to Mr. Dissanayake and his team,” he added.

Premadasa camp senior Harsha de Silva too congratulated Dissanayake.

NPP sources said they would be visiting the presidential secretariat on Sunday to discuss the formalities of the transition in the morning hours.

The swing Dissanayake garnered was of unbelievable proportions despite pre-poll expectations of his victory, which was considered foregone, analysts said.

The NPP, Dissanayaka’s once-marginal Marxist party, led two failed uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead. It won a mere 3% of the vote during the most recent parliamentary elections in August 2020.

But Sri Lanka’s crisis has proven an opportunity for Dissanayaka, 55, who has seen a surge of 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 ballot on Saturday.

This time, the minority Tamil issue is not on the agenda.

Instead, the nation’s battered economy and its recovery have taken centre stage, with all three frontrunners vowing to stick with the IMF bailout reforms. Dissanayake and Premadasa want to tinker with the IMF programme to give more economic relief to the public.

The polls were held on Saturday at over 13,400 polling stations in 22 electoral districts in the election, which had the highest number of candidates, 38, but no female aspirant for the top post.

Voters in Sri Lanka elect a single winner by ranking up to three candidates in order of preference. If a candidate receives an absolute majority, they will be declared the winner. If not, a second round of counting will commence, with second- and third-choice votes then taken into account.

–PTI