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Agence France-Presse

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka’s main Marxist politician took a comfortable lead Sunday in a keenly fought presidential election that has turned into a referendum on an unpopular IMF bailout.
Early results from Saturday’s vote strongly suggested that the 55-year-old Anura Kumara Dissanayaka could end up the first leftist commander-in-chief and head of state of the small but strategically placed island nation.
Dissanayaka had 58 per cent of the 250,000 votes counted out of just over 700,000 postal ballots. Public servants involved in conducting the election are entitled to post their ballots, which are the first to be counted.
Election officials said Dissanayaka was leading in the rest of the country, making his victory almost certain, and a major rival candidate has already conceded.
About 76 per cent of the 17.1 million person electorate turned out for Saturday’s vote, and final results are expected later on Sunday.


Rival candidate Namal Rajapaksa’s campaign conceded Dissanayaka’s victory even before a final declaration.
“Anura Kumara Dissanayaka has won the election,” Rajapaksa’s campaign aide Milinda Rajapaksha said on Facebook, adding: “Namal Rajapaksa won politics.”
The 38-year-old scion of the once powerful Rajapaksa clan entered the fray as a dress rehearsal for the 2029 presidential poll, sources close to him said.
There was no immediate reaction from President Ranil Wickremesinghe who declared an eight-hour curfew despite the independent Election Commission describing Saturday’s vote as the most peaceful in the country’s electoral history.
Police said the curfew was “an additional measure to protect people”.
Earlier in the day, the government declared Monday would be a special public holiday.
Wickremesinghe is seeking re-election to continue belt-tightening measures that stabilised the economy and ended months of food, fuel and medicine shortages after Sri Lanka’s worst economic meltdown in 2022.
His two years in office restored calm to the streets after civil unrest spurred by the downturn saw thousands storm the compound of his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country as anger mounted.

“I’ve taken this country out of bankruptcy,” Wickremesinghe, 75, said after casting his ballot.
But Wickremesinghe’s tax hikes and other measures, imposed under the terms of a $2.9-billion IMF bailout, have left millions struggling to make ends meet.
Dissanayaka’s once-marginal Marxist party led two failed uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead, and it won less than four per cent of the vote in the previous parliamentary elections.
But Sri Lanka’s crisis has proven an opportunity for Dissanayaka, who has seen a surge of support based on his pledge to change the island’s “corrupt” political culture.
He said at a polling station he was confident of securing the top job.
“After the victory there should be no clashes, no violence,” he said. “Our country needs a new political culture.”
Fellow opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, 57, the son of a former president assassinated in 1993 during the country’s decades-long civil war, was expected to be in second position.
Premadasa has vowed to fight endemic corruption. Both he and Dissanayaka have pledged to renegotiate the terms of the IMF rescue package.

Earlier in the day, political analyst Kusal Perera said it was difficult to predict a winner from the three-way race – the first in the island’s history.
The government has banned the sale of liquor over the weekend and said no victory rallies or celebrations would be permitted until a week after the final results.
Economic issues dominated the eight-week campaign, with public anger widespread over the hardships endured since the peak of the crisis two years ago.
Official data showed that Sri Lanka’s poverty rate doubled to 25 per cent between 2021 and 2022, adding more than 2.5 million people to those already living on less than US$3.65 a day.
Experts warn that Sri Lanka’s economy is still vulnerable, with payments on the island’s US$46 billion foreign debt yet to resume since a 2022 government default.
The IMF said reforms enacted by Wickremesinghe’s government were beginning to pay off, with growth slowly returning.
But the country was also warned that it was not out of the woods yet.


Marxist politician leads Sri Lanka’s presidential vote

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In Sri Lanka’s 3-way presidential race, the economy and minority rights take centre stage

Sri Lanka

National People’s Power presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayaka arrives at a polling station in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Police officers stand guard at a checkpoint in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Saturday. Photo: AFP

People wait to cast their ballots at a polling station in Galle, Sri Lanka, on Saturday. Photo: TNS

Voters wave Sri Lankan flags during a public rally in Colombo. Photo: AP

From left: Anura Kumara Dissanayake from National People’s Power; Sri Lanka’s incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe; Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya. Photos: EPA-EFE, AFP, AP

A worker pulls a handcart loaded with potato sacks at a market area in Colombo on Monday. Sri Lankans face multidimensional vulnerabilities in education, health, and living standards. Photo: Reuters

Namal Rajapaksa (left) talks with his father, former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, at an event in Colombo on September 2. Photo: EPA-EFE

China or India? Sri Lanka’s presidential election becomes a battleground for influence

Supporters of Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe cheer in Colombo on August 15 after he filed his papers for the coming presidential elections. Photo: AFP

Namal Rajapaksa, son of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, is among the 39 candidates running in next month’s election. Photo: EPA-EFE

President Ranil Wickremesinghe gestures as he arrives on August 15 to submit his nomination papers for the election. Photo: Reuters

A man waves the Sri Lankan flag outside the president’s office in Colombo in July 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa clan eyes comeback in presidential election, faces ‘herculean task’

Namal Rajapaksa, son of ex-Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, greets his supporters on August 7 after being nominated by Sri Lanka’s ruling Podujana Peramuna party as their presidential candidate for the upcoming election. Photo: EPA-EFE

Demonstrators protest inside the President’s House in Colombo after Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled amid the country’s economic crisis, on July 9, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Sri Lanka’s then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Prime Minister brother Mahinda Rajapaksa pose for a group photograph after the ministerial swearing-in ceremony in Colombo in 2019. Photo: AFP

Peter Breuer, International Monetary Fund Mission Senior Chief for Sri Lanka, speaks during a media briefing in Colombo last year on the first review under the IMF’s extended facility fund arrangement. Photo: EPA-EFE

News

Asia

South Asia

Early results strongly suggest the 55-year-old Anura Kumara Dissanayaka could end up the country’s first leftist commander-in-chief


Early results strongly suggest the 55-year-old Anura Kumara Dissanayaka could end up the country’s first leftist commander-in-chief.


Asia elections

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Poverty