Dissanayaka succeeds outgoing leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took business at the top of the economic crisis following the president’s first-ever foreign loan default and times of punishing food, fuel and medicine scarcity.
Wickremesinghe, 75, imposed rocky tax hikes and other poverty steps per the conditions of an International Monetary Fund loan.
His plans put an end to the scarcity and helped the economy grow, but millions of people still struggled to make ends meet.
After finishing a distant second in Saturday’s surveys, he said,” I can safely say that I tried my best to stabilize the country during one of its darkest times.”
Immediately before the festival, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena resigned, clearing the way for Dissanayaka to assign his own case.
Until a new congress is elected later this month, Dissanayaka’s group has stated that he wants to have his own cabinet. His JVP group has just three people in the 225-member parliament.
He has pledged to continue working on the IMF rescue package, which his father negotiated last year, but to change its conditions in order to bring about revenue reductions.
” It is a binding document, but there is a provision to renegotiate”, Bimal Ratnayake, a senior member of Dissanayaka’s group, told AFP.