Anura Dissanayake vs Sajith Premadasa — Who will be next Sri Lanka President?

Sri Lanka Election Results 2024: Marxist-leaning lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa are leading the race to become the next President of Sri Lanka. The two leaders are in tight contest as counting of votes continue in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankans voted to elect a new president on Saturday, September 21. It was the first election conducted in the island nation since it plunged into its worst economic crisis in 2022.
If election result trends are to be believed, Anura Kumara Dissanayake is all set to replace incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had taken over the reign in Sri Lanka amid the political-cum-economic crisis in July 2022.
In the cumulative vote count declared by 7 am on Sunday, 56-year-old Dissanayake garnered as many as 7,27,000 votes or 52 percent. His nearest rival 57-year-old Sajith Premadasa, the main opposition leader, received 333,000 votes at 23 percent. Meanwhile, Wickremesinghe, 75, was trailing way behind with 2,35,000 votes at 16 percent, news agency PTI reported.
Popularly known as AKD, Dissanayake leads two political parties: the People’s Liberation Front (JVP) and the National People’s Power (NPP). He is Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning leader. Dissanayake was born on November 24, 1968, and is currently a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Dissanayaka saw a surge of support based on his pledge to change Sri Lanka “corrupt” political culture. “Our country needs a new political culture,” he was quoted by AFP as saying after casting his ballot on Saturday.
According to Reuters, the Dissanayake party has traditionally backed stronger state intervention and more closed-market economic policies. He presented himself as the candidate of change, promising to dissolve parliament within 45 days of coming to power in order to seek a fresh mandate for his policies in the general elections.
During the campaign, Dissanayaka pledged to renegotiate the terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue package, which Wickremesinghe secured last year after the government defaulted on its foreign debt.
It’s feared that Dissanayake will favour China, keeping in view his Marxist, Leninist leanings in the past. The Week reported that his party, JVP’s “ideological leanings with China fueled suspicions about China funding his campaigns since 2021”.
However, in an interview with Daily Mirror Sri Lanka, Dissanayake had said, “Actually, someone had claimed that I had spent Rs. 70 million on foreign trips. I visited India and China on invitation from their governments. The Indian and Chinese governments bore all the cost.”
Meanwhile, Professor Anil Jayantha, one of the national executive committee members of NPP told The Week, “Our party or our leader wants to engage with India. India is certainly our neighbour and a superpower. Recently, we were invited by India for an agricultural summit. We visited Delhi and Kerala. Our leader wants to deal with all the major powers to stabilise the Sri Lankan economy.”
(With inputs from agencies)