Lanka polls LIVE: Left maverick leader Anura Dissanayake elected new President

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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