Colombo, Sep 22 (UNI) Fifty-five-year-old Left-leaning leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected as the ninth Executive President of Sri Lanka on Sunday after an unprecedented second preference count to decide the claimant for the highest office of the tiny island nation.
The country’s Election Commission formally named the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Dissanayake, representing the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, as the winner of the election held on Saturday.
Contesting the presidential election for the second time, after having received a poor three percent of the polled votes five years back, Dissanayake defeated Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party candidate Sajith Premadasa, two years his senior, in the run-off by a margin of 1.2 million votes, according to Daily Mirror.
He is likely to take oath on Monday.
Soon after his victory, Dissanayake called for national unity and a new renaissance and said “We stand ready to rewrite Sri Lankan history,”
“The millions of eyes filled with hope and expectation push us forward, and together, we stand ready to rewrite Sri Lankan history. This dream can only be realized with a fresh start. The unity of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and all Sri Lankans is the bedrock of this new beginning,” Dissanayake posted on his X handle.
“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 said.
Recalling the sacrifices made by the JVP cadres, he said “Our journey here has been paved by the sacrifices of so many who gave their sweat, tears, and even their lives for this cause. Their sacrifices are not forgotten”.
“The New Renaissance we seek will rise from this shared strength and vision. Let us join hands and shape this future together,” he added.
Earlier, the election authorities had to count the second preference votes after none of the candidates secured over 50 percent of the popular mandate in the first count.
Dissanayake, who fought on an anti-corruption plank, topped the first round of counting by securing 5.6 million votes or 42.3 percent, establishing a lead of 9.5 percent over the second-ranked Premadasa.
Leader of the Opposition Premadasa got 4.36 million votes or 32.8 percent of the total polled while incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe polled only 2.3 million votes or 17.3 percent.
“Dissanayaka has topped and Premadasa has got second highest votes. We will eliminate all other candidates from the contest and we will be counting the second and third preferential votes for these two candidates from the other candidates,” Election Commission Chairman R.L.A.M. Rathnayake said after the first count ended, according to EconomyNext.
Wickremesinghe, in the fray as an independent candidate, was thus ousted from the race.
Namal Rajapaksa, son of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, finished a distant fourth, getting only 0.7 percent of the votes.
An estimated 75 percent of the 17.1 million eligible Sri Lankans exercised their democratic rights peacefully on Saturday to elect their head of state for the next five years.
A record 38 candidates vied for the country’s highest post in the first election since the economic catastrophe a little more than two years back threw Sri Lanka into political turmoil.
The then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to flee abroad in July 2022 as the country saw an unprecedented food and fuel scarcity and defaulted on its loans.
Wickremesinghe has been steering the country since then.
