With 17 % of the vote, incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took business at the height of the 2022 financial collapse and imposed tough austerity measures in accordance with an IMF loan, came in a distant second in the election.  ,
He said in a statement,” History will judge my work, but I can safely state that I made it my best effort to stabilize the nation during one of its deepest times.”
He thanked Dissanayaka for his victory and said he was” confident” the politician would” steer Sri Lanka on a path of continued growth and stability.”
US embassy Julie Chung even passed on her thanks, saying in a speech that Washington stood “ready to work together on shared interests” with the next management.  ,
Election payment authorities said Dissanayaka will been sworn in on Monday morning at the President Secretariat of the colonial era in Colombo.
IMF DEAL
The eight-week battle was predominated by financial problems, with widespread public outcry over the belt-tightening measures put in place by Wickremesinghe since the island nation’s bruising monetary problems.
A party committee member told AFP that Dissanayaka do” not tear up” the IMF offer but that he would seek to change it.
” It is a binding record, but there is a provision to renegotiate”, said Bimal Ratnayake.
He claimed that Dissanayaka had pledged to lower Wickremesinghe’s doubled income taxes and lower income taxes on food and drugs.
” We think we can get those cuts into the program and remain with the four-year loan programme”, he said.
Dissanayaka’s once-marginal Socialist party led two failed rebellion in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80, 000 persons useless.
But Sri Lanka’s issue has proven an opportunity for Dissanayaka, whose reputation rocketed on his commitment to change the region’s” corrupt” social society.