Anura Kumara Dissanayake is new Sri Lanka president, declared winner after ‘unprecedented’ second round of counting

Colombo: Sri Lanka has got their new president after it was announced on Sunday, 22 September 2024 that Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been declared winner of the Sri Lankan presidential election by the country’s Election Commission after an unprecedented second round of counting of votes. He defeated his closest rival Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 56, will take oath as Sri Lanka’s ninth president.
He is the leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party’s broader front National People’s Power (NPP).
Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe was eliminated in the first round after he failed to show within the top two in the vote list.
Dissanayake will take oath on Monday, said NPP.
Earlier, the Election Commission ordered a second round of counting after no candidate secured over 50 per cent votes needed to be declared the winner of Saturday’s (September 21) election which is unprecedented in the island nation’s political history.
In Sri Lanka’s electoral history, no election has progressed to a second round of counting, with single candidates typically securing clear victories based on first-preference votes.