Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected as the next president of Sri Lanka on Sunday, reported the AP.
Leader of the National People’s Power, Dissanayake secured 5,740,179 or 42.3% of the votes, followed by Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, who got 4,530,902 or 32.8% of votes.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who assumed office two years ago after the country’s economy collapsed, was in the third spot with under 20% of the vote share.
On Monday, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena announced his resignation from the post, ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of the new president.
Dissanayake was declared winner after the presidential race went to a second tally as neither of the top two candidates secured the required 50% of votes, reported Reuters.
Under Sri Lanka’s electoral system, voters cast three preferential votes. A second round of counting is held between the top two candidates if no candidate secures 50% of the votes in the first count.
The elections on Saturday saw a voter turnout of 75%.
“This achievement is not the result of any single person’s work, but the collective effort of hundreds of thousands of you,” Dissanayake said in a social media post. “Your commitment has brought us this far, and for that, I am deeply grateful. This victory belongs to all of us.”
In a video statement, Wickremesinghe congratulated Dissanayake and expressed hope that he would continue the efforts to recover the country’s economy.
“I successfully completed the responsibility that history put on my shoulders,” said the outgoing president. “I was able to rescue my motherland from bankruptcy within short period of two years.”
Sri Lanka saw a drop in inflation and an improvement in both foreign reserves and the local currency under Wickremesinghe’s leadership. An economic growth of 2% is expected this year following a 7% contraction in 2022. However, Sri Lankans are continuing to face high taxes and living costs.
Dissanayake has vowed to renegotiate the loan conditions of the International Monetary Fund’s $3 billion bailout programme that had come with spending cuts and tax hikes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Dissanayake on his victory in a post on X and said that Sri Lanka was important for India’s Neighbourhood First policy. He vowed to work with the new government to strengthen the relationship between New Delhi and Colombo.
In response, the newly elected president said he shared Modi’s commitment to strengthening the ties between India and Sri Lanka.
On September 16, Dissanayake said that if he was elected to power, he would cancel the Adani Group’s wind power project in Sri Lanka, reported PTI.
He said that the project “threatens our energy sovereignty”.
In November 2021, an official of the electricity board, deposing before a parliamentary committee, alleged that Modi pressured former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to grant the project to the Adani Group.
Rajapaksa had denied the claim. The official later retracted his remarks, claiming that he made a false statement as he got “emotional”.
The group plans to invest over $440 million under a 20-year agreement to develop 484 megawatts of wind power in the area.
After receiving approval for a wind power project in Sri Lanka’s northeastern regions of Mannar and Pooneryn, the Adani Group faced litigation in the country’s Supreme Court on grounds of potential environmental impact and “lack of transparency”, reported The Hindu in May.
Petitioners have expressed environmental concerns and criticized the lack of transparency in the bidding process that allowed Adani Green Energy to proceed with the project.
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