Marxist lawmaker leads the vote count in Sri Lanka's presidential election
Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa headed to a run-off for Sri Lanka’s presidency on Sunday, the election body said, with a second round of counting to determine the winner using preferential votes.
Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa headed to a run-off for Sri Lanka’s presidency on Sunday, the election body said, with a second round of counting to determine the winner using preferential votes.
It is the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that the presidential race is to be decided by a second round of counting after the top two candidates failed to win the mandatory 50% of votes to be declared winner.
All remaining candidates, including incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, have been disqualified, the Election Commission told reporters. Dissanayake polled 39.5% of the counted ballots with Premadasa finishing second at 34%.
Wickremesinghe, who led the heavily indebted nation’s fragile economic recovery from a debilitating crisis in 2022, trailed in third with 17%.
This is Sri Lanka’s first election since the Indian Ocean nation’s economy buckled in 2022 under a severe foreign exchange shortage, leaving it unable to pay for imports of essentials including fuel, medicine and cooking gas. Protests forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and later resign.
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