Rumble in Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Election Surprise

On September 21, Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected Sri Lanka’s president, representing a massive shift in voter sentiment since 2019, when he had garnered just 3.16 percent of the vote. As the first election since Sri Lanka’s default and the ensuring economic crisis in 2022, Dissanayake’s victory is an important clue about the country’s new political scene. Another will come with the parliamentary election on November 14.

Uditha Devapriya, the chief analyst of international relations at the Colombo-based think tank Factum, and Umesh Moramudali, a lecturer at University of Colombo, break down Dissanayake’s victory in the presidential election. Together with host Tushar Shetty, they discuss Sri Lanka’s economic meltdown, the political realignments post-Rajapaksa and Dissanayake’s rise from his controversial past to his future challenges as president.

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