Anura Kumara Dissanayake: Left-leaning leader wins Sri Lanka election

After a traditional second round of counting, left-leaning politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake has won Sri Lanka’s national poll.

No candidate won more than 50 % of the total votes in the first round, where Dissanayake got 42.31 % while his closest rival, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, got 32.76 %.

But Dissanayake, who promised citizens good governance and strong anti-corruption steps, emerged as success after the second matter, which tallied electors ‘ second and third choice candidates.

The election on Saturday was the first to be held since mass protests unseated the country’s leader, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in 2022 after Sri Lanka suffered its worst economic crisis.

To revitalize the business, Dissanayake, 55, has promised to build the manufacturing, crops and IT industries. He has also pledged to carry out the IMF’s bailout agreement while limiting the effects of Sri Lanka’s austerity measures on the poorest of the nation.

Until this week’s voting, all of Sri Lanka’s eight national elections since 1982 have seen the success emerge during the first round of calculating. This surveys has been described as one of the closest in the country’s history.

The Sri Lankan elections commission described the election as the most relaxing in the country’s past, with 17 million people eligible to vote on Saturday.

However, police announced a curfew later Saturday evening citing “public security. It was lifted at noon local time ( 06: 30 GMT ).

Dissanayake’s message to voters, who had long been calling for systemic change, was strong anti-corruption measures and good governance. It was powerful in the eyes of the electorate.

In the 1970s and 1980s, his political party, the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna ( JVP), which carried out two armed uprisings against the Sri Lankan state, was in control of his situation.

His ally, the National People’s Party – of which the JVP is a piece – rose to prominence during the 2022 demonstrations, known as the aragalaya – Sinhala for battle.

In recent years, he has even attempted to lower his party’s hard-left position.

Early findings showed him taking the lead, which prompted many well-known figures, including the nation’s foreign minister, to applaud him.

However, as voting continued, he lost some earth to Premadasa, which necessitated the next round of counting.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, the former president, received 17 % of the vote, putting him in fourth place in the polls. He was eliminated from the minute matter, which was only between the two finalists.

The new president of the nation will have to rescue millions from devastating hunger and revive the economy simultaneously.

The” Aragalaya” ( struggle ) uprising that removed Rajapaksa from the presidential palace in 2022 was fueled by an economic meltdown.

Sri Lanka’s foreign currency reserves at the time were running out, making it unable to import essentials like gasoline. Public debt increased to$ 83 billion while inflation increased to 70 %.

Basic items like food and healthcare could not be afforded by regular people because of this.

The country’s financial sorrow has been blamed on key policy mistakes, weak exports and decades of under-taxation. This was exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis, which choked tourism, a vital financial vehicle.

However, some people even attribute corruption and mismanagement to Rajapaksa and his family, who have ruled Sri Lanka for more than ten years.

” The most critical issue is how to restore this business,” said Dr Athulasiri Samarakoon, a social scientist at the Open University of Sri Lanka, told the BBC Sinhala Service.

During his term, Wickremesinghe had secured a $2.9bn lifeline from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is crucial to opening additional funding channels, but comes with strict economic and governance policy reforms.

Sri Lanka is changing the terms of its debts obligations to domestic and international creditors in accordance with the IMF’s recommendations. The main focus has been the country’s$ 36bn in foreign debt, of which$ 7bn is owed to China, its largest bilateral creditor.

Like Dissanayake, Premadasa has even pushed for IT as well as the creation of 25 innovative business areas. He argued that commerce should be promoted to become the nation’s leading foreign currency producer.

During the campaign, Wickremesinghe promised to increase tourist arrivals, create a national prosperity fund, as well as create new economic zones to promote growth.

More reporting by BBC Sinhala