IMF DEAL
Economic issues dominated the eight-week campaign, with widespread public anger over the hardships endured since the peak of the crisis two years ago.
Dissanayaka would “not tear up” the IMF deal but would seek to modify it, a party politburo member told AFP.
“It is a binding document, but there is a provision to renegotiate,” said Bimal Ratnayake.
He said Dissanayaka had pledged to reduce income taxes that were doubled by Wickremesinghe and slash sales taxes on food and medicines.
“We think we can get those reductions into the programme and continue with the four-year bailout programme,” he said.
Dissanayaka’s once-marginal Marxist party led two failed uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead.
It won less than 4 per cent of the vote during the most recent parliamentary elections in 2020.
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.
“Our country needs a new political culture,” he said after casting his ballot on Saturday.
Around 76 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 17.1 million eligible voters cast ballots in Saturday’s poll.
Dissanayaka’s party sought to reassure India that any administration he led would not be caught up in geopolitical rivalry between its northern neighbour and China, the country’s largest lender.
New Delhi has expressed concerns over what it sees as Beijing’s growing influence in Sri Lanka, which sits on vital shipping lanes criss-crossing the Indian Ocean.
“Sri Lankan territory will not be used against any other nation,” Ratnayake told AFP.
“We are fully aware of the geopolitical situation in our region, but we will not participate.”
