The nation is putting its trust in Anura Kumara Dissanayake to fight corruption and shore up a fragile economy after the worst financial crisis in decades.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been declared the winner of the island nation’s presidential election, according to the Election Commission of Sri Lanka.
Dissanayake, 55, a Marxist-leaning leader of the People’s Liberation Front (JVP) party and head of the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, won the presidency with 42.31 percent of the vote in the election, the commission said on Sunday.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa came second with 32.76 per cent of the vote in Saturday’s poll.
Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe – who took office at the height of the 2022 economic collapse and imposed strict austerity policies under the terms of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout – came in a distant third with 17.27% of the vote.
It was the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that the presidential race was decided by a run-off vote after the top two candidates failed to secure the required 50% of the vote.
President-elect Dissanayake is expected to take the oath of office on Monday at the colonial-era Presidential Secretariat in the main city of Colombo, according to election commission officials.
Declaring victory, Dissanayake called for unity among all Sri Lankans, including the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities, adding that “a new renaissance will emerge from this shared strength and vision.”
“The dream we have nurtured for centuries is finally coming true. This achievement is not the result of the work of a single person, but of the collective effort of hundreds of thousands of you. Your commitment has brought us this far, and for that, I am deeply grateful. This victory belongs to all of us,” he said in a message on X.
Reporting from Colombo, Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez said Dissanayake “brings a certain kind of vitality and charisma” to the presidency.
“Dissanayake was very determined and confident in the promises he made, carrying the hopes of the people of the nation. There was a certain energy when he walked into a room,” she said, referring to his campaign.
“Dissanayake has been in parliament for 20 years and he has seen how the political game is played, but what he claims is that he brings a new lease of life to it which under his leadership will bring a new wind of change,” Fernandez added.
“Dissanayake’s presidency will fill two voids”
The state of the economy has been at the heart of Dissanayake’s election agenda, with him promising social measures to make people’s lives easier. He has also been critical of austerity measures imposed as part of an IMF loan deal, and has pledged to negotiate the terms of the deal.
Incumbent President Wickremesinghe had led the debt-ridden country’s fragile economic recovery from an economic crisis in 2022. But his failure to address the cost of living crisis has turned voters away from him. His association with the Rajapaksa family, which is blamed for the economic crisis, has likely also dented his appeal.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has also provided an opportunity for Dissanayake to change the island’s “corrupt” political culture. “Our country needs a new political culture,” he said after casting his ballot on Saturday.
Nishan de Mel, executive director of the Verite Research think tank in Sri Lanka, told Al Jazeera that a Dissanayake presidency would fill two voids in the country’s politics.
“First, the political vacuum created by the complete loss of confidence in the Rajapaksa family, which had been president or prime minister for about 15 years,” he said.
“Second, the political vacuum created in centre-left politics, when the Rajapaksas steered the previous centre-left political bloc towards right-wing policies,” de Mel added.
Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group told Al Jazeera that Dissanayake – “a charismatic campaigner and speaker” – had tapped into an anti-corruption sentiment among Sri Lankan voters.
“He’s fighting for a change of system. It’s a very high bar, the expectations are very high from many supporters,” he said.
