This is the first time in Sri Lanka’s electoral history that a candidate (Anura Dissanayake) will become president after winning the runoff.
Left-wing leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidential elections in Sri Lanka. According to Al Jazeera, the Electoral Commission declared victory. He can be sworn in as president tomorrow. He will be the country’s 10th president and will replace the current president Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Elections were held in Sri Lanka on September 21. It was the first time in Sri Lanka’s electoral history that no candidate received 50% of the vote. After that, the second round of counting took place.
The Electoral Commission said Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa received the highest number of votes in the presidential election. After that, the last competition took place between these two candidates.
According to the Sri Lankan website Daily Mirror, in the first round, Anura Dissanayake obtained approximately 42.3% of the votes, Sajith Premadasa 32.8% of the votes and Ranil Wickramasinghe 17.3% of the votes.
The survey also predicted the possibility of a Dissanayake victory.
Anura was known for her opposition to India, but her friendship grew Anura Kumara Dissanayake is a leader of the left-wing Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). He ran in the presidential election on behalf of the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance. This alliance received only 3 percent of the vote in the last elections.
According to the South China Morning Post, the JVP party is known for its opposition to India. In the 1980s, India decided to send peacekeeping forces to fight the LTTE in Sri Lanka. Then, JVP opposed it.
In recent years, JVP has changed its anti-India stance. However, Anura sparked a new controversy by making a statement against the Indian company Adani before the elections. The JVP leader had promised that after his victory in the presidential elections, he would cancel the Adani group’s wind project in Sri Lanka.
Anura had said the Adani project posed a threat to Sri Lanka’s energy sovereignty. Adani Group signed an agreement with the Sri Lankan government this year to develop a wind power plant. For this, the company will invest $442 million (around 367 crores).
Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s popularity increased significantly due to the historic mass movement that followed the severe recession in Sri Lanka.
Anura became popular among young people by making statements against corruption There has been a huge rise in the popularity of Anura Dissanayake and NPP over the last four years. The people of Sri Lanka have high expectations from the NPP in terms of economic reform and social equality, as it has never been in power before. This is why people have more confidence in it.
Anura Dissanayake is very popular among young people. Another main reason for the growing popularity of the NPP is its promise to fight corruption. Anura promises to free Sri Lanka from corruption in every campaign. Young people believe that corruption is the main reason for the deterioration of the economic situation in the country.
The party also worked on strong international relations. China and India are two major economic partners of Sri Lanka. The party visited China in December 2023 and met with senior leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.
Similarly, an NPP delegation visited India in February 2024 and met senior Indian officials, including Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
Anura visited India in February 2024. During this time, he met Foreign Minister Jaishankar.
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