Marxist leader Anura Dissanayake wins Sri Lanka's presidential election
Colombo | Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Sunday was declared winner of the Sri Lankan presidential election by the country's Election Commission after an unprecedented second round of counting of votes.
Dissanayake, 56, the leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party's broader front National People’s Power (NPP), defeated his closest rival Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).
Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe was eliminated in the first round after he failed to become within the top two in the vote list.
NPP said Dissanayake will take oath on Monday. He will be the 9th president of the island nation.
After being defeated in the election, Wickremesinghe bid an emotional farewell to his 26-month tenure, marking the end of his presidency.
Addressing president-elect Dissanayake in a statement, the 75-year-old outgoing president said, “President Anura Dissanayake, I am handing over to your care the lovable child of Sri Lanka.”
He said that over the last two years he has safely carried the Sri Lanka child on the vine bridge, and "I wish that under your care as the new president, the child is carried safely to the end of his destination".
The election on Saturday was the first to be held since mass protests unseated Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 after the country suffered an economic crisis.
Earlier, the Election Commission ordered a second round of counting after no candidate secured over 50 per cent votes needed to be declared the winner of Saturday's election.
In the first round of counting, Dissanayake topped the chart by securing 5.63 million votes or 42.31 per cent, followed by Opposition leader Premadasa with 4.36 million votes or 32.8 per cent and Wickremesinghe getting only 2.29 million votes or 17.27 per cent of the total votes polled.
No election in Sri Lanka has ever progressed to the second round of counting, as single candidates have always emerged as clear winners based on first-preference votes.
The accession of Dissanayake, who is popularly known as AKD, to the top post is a remarkable turnaround for his half-century-old party JVP, which had long remained on the margins. He is Sri Lanka’s first-ever Marxist party leader to become head of state.
Dissanayake's anti-corruption message and his promise of a change in political culture resonated strongly with young voters who have been demanding system change since the economic crisis.
The NPP's popularity has risen sharply since 2022 after securing only around three per cent of the vote in the last presidential election in 2019.
Dissanayake, who hails from rural Thambuttegama in the North Central province, is a science graduate from the Colombo suburban Kelaniya University.
He joined the JVP, the mother party of the NPP, in 1987 at the height of their anti-Indian rebellion.
The JVP eliminated many activists of all democratic parties that supported the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987.
The Rajiv Gandhi-J R Jayawardena pact was the direct Indian intervention to solve the Tamil demand for political autonomy in the country. The JVP dubbed the Indian intervention as a betrayal of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
However, Dissanayake's visit to India in February this year is seen as a change in the NPP leadership's approach towards India, expressing alignment with foreign investment interests.
With JVP’s taking up democratic politics in the late 90s, Dissanayake got a place in the JVP central committee.
In the 2000 parliamentary election, he entered Parliament from the JVP. He has been an opposition livewire since 2001.
Dissanayake re-entered Parliament from the northwestern district of Kurunegala after the 2004 election in an alliance with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He was appointed the minister of agriculture.
With the JVP leaving the government over a joint mechanism with the LLTE on sharing the 2004 Tsunami relief aid to the North, then controlled by the rebel group, Dissanayake became the parliamentary group leader of the JVP in 2008.
He was again elected to Parliament in the 2010 parliamentary election from the Colombo district and became his party's chief in 2014.
Having won again from Colombo in 2015, he became the chief opposition whip, a post he held till 2019.
In 2019, the JVP rebranded itself as the NPP, which embraced sections of Sri Lankan society that had never been enamoured towards the JVP given its violent past. The party had led two bloody rebellions in 1971 and between 1987 and 1990 to overthrow popular governments and faced brutal state crackdowns each time.
Dissanayake faces the immediate challenge of determining the future of economic reforms in the cash-strapped country.
Historically, the NPP has opposed International Monetary Fund programmes, but its recent endorsement of the current programme, although with a renegotiation of its terms, marks a significant shift.
Anura Dissanayake: JVP gets its biggest high with his rise
Colombo | Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake rose from a humble background to the pinnacle of leadership in Sri Lanka, presenting himself as a transformative leader to young voters and those tired of the "corrupt politics" of the traditional politicians.
Dissanayake, 56, popularly known as AKD, was on Sunday declared the winner of Saturday's presidential election.
The election on Saturday was the first to be held since mass protests unseated Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 after the country suffered an economic crisis.
His accession to the post is a remarkable turnaround for his half-century-old party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which had long remained on the margins. He is Sri Lanka’s first-ever Marxist party leader to become head of state.
The leader of the JVP's broader front, the National People’s Power (NPP), Dissanayake's anti-corruption message and his promise of a change in political culture resonated strongly with young voters who have been demanding system change since the economic crisis.
The NPP's popularity has risen sharply since 2022 after securing only around three per cent of the vote in the last presidential election in 2019.
"In our country, only an un-corrupt force will take action against the corrupt. The slogan of punishing the corrupt has been echoed on stage since 1994 under Chandrika ( Kumaratunga), Mahinda (Rajapaksa), Maithripala (Sirisena) and Gotabaya (Rajapaksa). The corrupt will never punish the corrupt. The corrupt always protect the corrupt. It is the NPP’s priority to end corruption," he said in an interview with Daily Mail online in August.
Dissanayake, during another event in March, passionately asserted that the political struggle is not merely about a change of government but an endeavour to usher in political, economic, and social transformations of paramount importance in Sri Lanka’s history.
Dissanayake, who hails from rural Thambuttegama in the North Central province, is a science graduate from the Colombo suburban Kelaniya University.
He joined the JVP, the mother party of the NPP, in 1987 at the height of their anti-Indian rebellion.
The JVP eliminated many activists of all democratic parties that supported the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987.
The Rajiv Gandhi-J R Jayawardena pact was the direct Indian intervention to solve the Tamil demand for political autonomy in the country. The JVP dubbed the Indian intervention as a betrayal of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
However, Dissanayake's visit to India in February this year is seen as a change in the NPP leadership's approach towards India, expressing alignment with foreign investment interests.
With JVP’s taking up democratic politics in the late 90s, Dissanayake got a place in the JVP central committee.
In the 2000 parliamentary election, he entered Parliament from the JVP. He has been an opposition livewire since 2001.
Dissanayake re-entered Parliament from the northwestern district of Kurunegala after the 2004 election in an alliance with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He was appointed the minister of agriculture.
With the JVP leaving the government over a joint mechanism with the LLTE on sharing the 2004 Tsunami relief aid to the North, then controlled by the rebel group, Dissanayake became the parliamentary group leader of the JVP in 2008.
He was again elected to Parliament in the 2010 parliamentary election from the Colombo district and became his party's chief in 2014.
Having won again from Colombo in 2015, he became the chief opposition whip, a post he held till 2019.
In 2019, the JVP rebranded itself as the NPP, which embraced sections of Sri Lankan society that had never been enamoured towards the JVP given its violent past.
The party had led two bloody rebellions in 1971 and between 1987 and 1990 to overthrow popular governments and faced brutal state crackdowns each time.
Dissanayake faces the immediate challenge of determining the future of economic reforms in the cash-strapped country.
Historically, the NPP has opposed International Monetary Fund programmes, but its recent endorsement of the current programme, although with a renegotiation of its terms, marks a significant shift.
Ranil Wickremesinghe bids an emotional farewell to Lanka presidency
Colombo | President Ranil Wickremesinghe who lost Sri Lanka's presidential election on Sunday bid an emotional farewell to his 26 months job as the island nation's president and handed over the care of the "child" called Sri Lanka to president-elect Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
“President Anura Dissanayake, I am handing over to your care the lovable child called Sri Lanka, whom we both love very dearly," the 75-year-old outgoing president said in a statement.
Wickremesinghe, who took charge after then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned as protesters stormed the presidential palace following the country's economic crisis, said he over the last two years safely carried the "child" Sri Lanka "along a long distance safely - on the dangerous rope bridge".
"Close to the very end of the bridge, people have decided to hand over the dear child called Sri Lanka to President Anura Dissanayake. I wish that you will be able to carry this child away from the bridge to the other bank, even safer than the way I carried the child," the outgoing president said.
Wickremesinghe also said he followed the right path and saved people from hunger and sorrow following the economic crisis that led to the shortage of essential commodities in the island nation.
"I hope that the new president will also follow the right path and put an end to the remaining issues that the people are facing," said Wickremesinghe who finished third in the election with just 17 per cent of the vote.
"I will be devoted to serving my motherland with or without power, with or without a post or powers, for the rest of my life," the outgoing president said, thanking his supporters and even those who did not support him.
After taking over in 2022, Wickremesinghe steered the economy with the IMF bailout of nearly USD 3 billion.
However, the tough austerity measures in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme made him unpopular despite his hard work in turning around the bankrupt economy.
Reflecting upon his role as a caretaker, Wickremesinghe said he accepted the challenge at a time when no one else dared to face it and completed the responsibility that history put upon his shoulders.
"I was able to rescue my motherland from bankruptcy within a short period of two years and increased the Foreign Reserve, which was at USD 20 Million when I came to power, to USD 5.7 Billion."
Marxist leader Dissanayake, 56, popularly known as AKD, was declared the winner of Saturday's presidential election.
The election on Saturday was the first to be held since mass protests unseated Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 after the country suffered an economic crisis.
His accession to the post is a remarkable turnaround for his half-century-old party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which had long remained on the margins. He is Sri Lanka’s first-ever Marxist party leader to become head of state.
Dissanayake faces the immediate challenge of determining the future of economic reforms in the cash-strapped country.
Historically, the NPP has opposed International Monetary Fund programmes, but its recent endorsement of the current programme, although with a renegotiation of its terms, marks a significant shift.
