COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake grabbed a commanding early lead on Sunday (Sep 22) in his bid to become the next president of the debt-ridden country seeking to elect a leader to bolster its fragile economic recovery.
Early results from Saturday’s vote strongly suggested that the 55-year-old would become the first leftist commander-in-chief and head of state of the small but strategically placed island nation.
The election pits Dissanayaka against President Ranil Wickremesinghe and rival candidate Namal Rajapaksa, whose campaign conceded defeat early Sunday.
About 76 percent of the 17.1 million-person electorate turned out to vote, officials said, with final results expected later Sunday.
Dissanayaka’s strong showing in the postal ballot, considered an accurate indication of the entire electorate, boosted expectations that he would win.
Election officials said Dissanayaka had won 58 per cent of postal votes, with about a third of ballots counted.
In previous polls, candidates who garnered more than 50 per cent of the postal ballot have gone on to win the presidency.
Rajapaksa’s aides said Dissanayaka had won the vote.
“Anura Kumara Dissanayaka has won the election,” Rajapaksa’s campaign aide Milinda Rajapaksha said on Facebook, adding: “Namal Rajapaksa won politics.”
The 38-year-old scion of the once powerful Rajapaksa clan entered the fray as a dress rehearsal for the 2029 presidential poll, sources close to him told AFP.
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, a close ally of Wickremesinghe, also said Dissanayaka had won.
“After a long and arduous campaign, the results of the election are now clear,” Sabry said on X.
“Though I heavily campaigned for President Ranil Wickremasinghe, the people of Sri Lanka have made their decision, and I fully respect their mandate for Anura Kumara Dissanayaka.”
There was no immediate reaction from Wickremesinghe, but he declared an eight-hour curfew despite the independent Election Commission describing Saturday’s vote as the most peaceful in the country’s electoral history.
Police said the curfew was “an additional measure to protect people”.
Earlier in the day, the government declared Monday would be a special public holiday.
