Sri Lanka elects Marxist-leaning Dissanayake as president to fix economy

Nation puts faith in Anura Kumara Dissanayake to fight corruption and bolster 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.

The Marxist-leaning Dissanayake, 55, leader of the People’s Liberation Front (JVP) party and leader 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 took second place with 32.76 percent of the vote held on Saturday.

Outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe – who took office at the peak of the 2022 economic collapse and imposed tough austerity policies per the terms of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout – took a distant third place with 17.27 percent of the votes polled.

It was the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that the presidential race was decided by a second round of counting after the top two candidates failed to win the mandatory 50 percent of votes.

According to election commission officials, the president-elect Dissanayake is expected to be sworn in on Monday at the colonial-era President Secretariat in the main city of Colombo.

Declaring his victory, Dissanayake called for unity of all Sri Lankans, including the Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslim communities, adding that a “new renaissance will rise from this shared strength and vision”.

“The dream we have nurtured for centuries is finally coming true. This achievement is not the result of any single person’s work, but 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 post 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 decisive and confident in the pledges he made carrying the hopes of the people of the nation. There was a certain amount of energy as he walked into a room,” she said, referring to his campaign.

“Dissanayake has been in parliament for 20 years and he has seen the way the political game is played but what he is claiming is that he brings to it a new lease of life that under his leadership will bring a new wind of change,” Fernandez added.

‘Dissanayake presidency will fill two voids’

The state of the economy was the centrestage of the election agenda as Dissanayake, who promised welfare measures to ease people’s lives. He has also been critical of the austerity measures imposed as part of a deal with the IMF to secure loans, and he has pledged to negotiate the terms of the deal.

Outgoing President Wickremesinghe had led the heavily indebted nation’s fragile economic recovery from a debilitating crisis in 2022. But his failure to address the cost-of-living crisis swayed voters away from him. His association with the Rajapaksa family, who have been blamed for the economic crisis, also probably dented his appeal.

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis also proved to be an opportunity for Dissanayake to change the island’s “corrupt” political culture. “Our country needs a new political culture,” he had aid 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 will fill two voids in the country’s politics.

“Firstly, the political void created by the complete loss of faith in the Rajapaksa family, which had held the presidency or prime minister position for about 15 years,” he said.

“Secondly, the political void created in centre-left politics, when the Rajapaksas took the previous centre-left political block towards right-wing policies,” de Mel added.

Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group told Al Jazeera that Dissanayake – “a charismatic campaigner and speaker” – tapped into an anti-corruption strand among the Sri Lankan voters.

“He is fighting for a system change. That’s a very high bar, [there are] high expectations from a lot of supporters,” he said.