Lanka polls LIVE: Left maverick leader Anura Dissanayake elected new President
Sri Lanka's crisis has proven an opportunity for Dissanayake, who has seen a surge of support due to his pledge to change the island's "corrupt" political culture
Sri Lanka's new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake (front). File photo: X/@anuradisanayake
Sri Lanka's Election Commission officially declared Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake as the winner of the Presidential election on Sunday (September 22), defeating the current President, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
According to the commission's website, Dissanayake, 55, secured 42.31% of the vote in Saturday's elections, September 21, 2024. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa finished in second place, with Wickremesinghe trailing behind in third.
Dissanayake is set to be sworn in tomorrow.
Our earlier copy.
Election Commission Chairman RMAL Rathnayake said that Dissanayake and Premadasa have secured maximum votes in the 2024 presidential election.
However, he said that as neither has secured more than 50 per cent vote, the second preference vote will be counted and added to these two candidates.
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.
Leads in cumulative votes
Rathnayake said the new president will be declared elected after the cumulative votes and preference votes are counted.
He also said that the remaining candidates will not be considered for the preference vote.
Dissanayake, the leader of the Marxist JVP’s broader front National People’s Power (NPP), is leading in the cumulative votes.
The National People’s Power (NPP) leader was earlier heading for a clear win but his cumulative votes dropped when most of the votes were counted.
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.
First polls since fiscal crisis
Earlier, Sri Lankans on Saturday voted to elect a new president for the first election since the economic meltdown in 2022.
The voter turnout in the presidential election was around 75 per cent, lower than the 83 per cent polled in the previous presidential election held in November 2019.
In the cumulative vote count declared by 7 am on Sunday, 56-year-old Dissanayake amassed 7,27,000 votes or 52 per cent against his nearest rival 57-year-old Sajith Premadasa, the main opposition leader who received 3,33,000 votes at 23 per cent.
Wickremesinghe trailing
The incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75, was trailing way behind with 235,000 votes at 16 per cent.
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.
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, he will be declared the winner. If not, a second round of counting will commence, with second and third-choice votes then taken into account.
Take a look at the votes, percentage-wise, each presidential candidate got
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Dissanayake will be sworn in on Monday morning at the colonial-era President Secretariat in Colombo, election commission officials said.
Dissanayake, the 55-year-old leader of the People's Liberation Front, won the presidency with 42.31 per cent of the vote in Saturday's election, the commission said.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa took second place with 32.76 per cent.
Outgoing 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 -- took a distant third with 17.27 per cent.
Wickremesinghe has yet to concede, but Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said it was clear that Dissanayake had won.
Marxist-leaning Anura Kumar Dissanayake wins Sri Lanka’s presidential election, according to official results. For the first time in the country’s history, election officials counted the second-preference votes after no candidate secured 50 per cent of the votes.
The JVP and the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance it leads have consistently maintained that Dissanayake, 55, was set to win the presidency in the elections held on Saturday.
The Election Commission said Dissanayake was again in the lead as officials counted, in line with rules, the second preference votes of all other candidates barring Dissanayake and Premadasa.
Media reports said that although the final result would be out later Sunday, the oath taking can take place only on Monday due to “time constraints”.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party's broader front National People’s Power (NPP) is leading in second preference vote count too.
JVP has told its cadres not to take to the streets to celebrate as of now. The JVP is already ready with a list of possible cabinet ministers. Internal sources say, in the event of a win, Dissanayake will be the President and in charge of the defence ministry.
Sajith Premadasa is leading in the Vanni district while Ranil Wickremesinghe is leading in Batticaloa and Jaffna districts
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…— M U M Ali Sabry (@alisabrypc) September 21, 2024