Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a Marxist politician, is leading in the early results of Sri Lanka's presidential election, according to tallies made public by the Election Commission on Sunday. Dissanayake hasn't yet achieved the 50% needed for an absolute victory, though.
Seen as a major political upheaval brought on by the worst economic crisis in Sri Lanka's history, the election, which took place on Saturday, is of utmost importance.
38 candidates ran in the election, but Dissanayake, the incumbent liberal president Ranil Wickremesinghe, and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa dominated the field.
Younger people gave Dissanayake a lot of support because of his campaign's emphasis on pro-working class and anti-political establishment discourse. With 47% of the vote, he is in the lead, followed by Premadasa (28%), Wickremesinghe (15%), and others.
Dissanayake, who received slightly more than 3% of the vote in the 2019 presidential election, has shown a notable improvement, indicating a change in the attitudes of voters who are weary of the conventional political establishment being held responsible for the nation's economic turmoil.
"I wish Mr. Dissanayake and his team every success in their efforts to lead Sri Lanka forward," said Wickremesinghe's Foreign Minister Ali Sabry in a congratulations post on the social media site X.
With a "commitment to transparency, integrity, and the long-term good of the country," Sabry also expressed hope that Dissanayake would lead the nation.
Even though Dissanayake has the advantage, neither Wickremesinghe nor Premadasa has given up because the results are still pending and a decision has not been made.
If no candidate secures 50% of the total votes, the election will not automatically proceed to a separate runoff.
Three candidates are ranked in order of preference by voters in Sri Lanka. The top two candidates progress if no candidate receives a majority of the vote, and the winner is chosen by redistributing the second-choice votes of the candidates who were eliminated.
Following this redistribution, the candidate with the most votes will be crowned the next president.
Wickremesinghe's leadership and his handling of the nation's precarious economic recovery, which included restructuring debt as part of an IMF bailout program, are perceived as being essentially put to the test in this election.
The left-leaning National People's Power alliance is led by 55-year-old Dissanayake and consists of professionals, students, civil society organizations, and Buddhist clergy.
Although there were no significant events reported during the election, officials implemented a nationwide curfew until Sunday midday as a precaution, according to police.
The Election Commission said there were 17 million eligible voters, and final results are expected to be announced by Sunday evening.
Just before the election, the government announced on Thursday that it had reached the final stage of its debt restructuring by securing an agreement in principle with private bondholders.
At the time of Sri Lanka’s default in 2022, the country’s local and foreign debt totaled $83 billion. The government has since restructured over $17 billion of this debt.
Although key economic indicators have improved, many Sri Lankans are still facing hardships due to high taxes and the rising cost of living.
While Wickremesinghe has cautioned that changing the agreement could postpone the transfer of over $3 billion from the IMF, which is essential for stability, Premadasa and Dissanayake have both stated their intention to revise the IMF pact in order to make its austerity measures more doable for civilians.
The economic crisis in Sri Lanka was primarily brought on by excessive borrowing for non-profit projects, which was made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic and the depletion of foreign reserves to maintain the value of the rupee. Following the collapse, there were acute shortages of basic supplies, protracted demonstrations, and the removal of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022. Wickremesinghe then assumed government through a parliamentary vote.
