Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has won Sri Lanka’s presidential election, in what was viewed as a widespread rejection of the old political elite who are blamed for the country’s ongoing economic woes.
For the first time in Sri Lanka’s history, the election went into a runoff on Sunday after no candidate managed to get more than 50% of the votes. However, after second-choice votes were counted, Dissanayake was finally declared the winner in the evening. “This victory belongs to all of us,” he said, writing on X.
Dissanayake, 55, defeated incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was installed as president in 2022 after former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to resign and flee the country amid a popular uprising.
The win by Dissanayake, leader of the hardcore leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which is a member of the broader National People Power (NPP) coalition, was seen by many to be a watershed moment for his party. It is the first time they have sat in the presidential office.
The NPP had won just 3% of the votes in the last presidential election in 2019 while JVP holds just three seats in parliament. For many, the JVP had long been considered an unelectable radical fringe group due to their past involvement in violent insurrections and targeted assassinations that left thousands dead in the 1980s.
However, since 2022, Sri Lanka has gone through a period of prolonged economic and political tumult that has left many disenchanted with the parties and leaders that have dominated politics for the past two decades.
More than two years ago the island nation found itself in the worst serious economic crisis, with barely any money left in foreign reserves to import essential goods such as medicines or pay back international debts.
As the country declared itself virtually bankrupt, it provoked a political uprising against President Rajapaksa and his powerful family dynasty who were accused of rampant corruption and misappropriation of state assets. An uprising on the streets, known as the aragalaya [struggle] eventually led to protesters taking over Rajapaksa’s presidential palace – where they swam in his pool and worked out in his gym – forcing his resignation and temporary exile from the country.
Wickremesinghe, a six-time former prime minister, was appointed in his place and tasked with getting the country’s economy back on track. He was credited with negotiating a $3bn loan from the international monetary fund (IMF) but as poverty rose to 25% over the past two years, he became deeply unpopular for austerity policies that were seen to hit the poor.
Dissanayake’s NPP had spent the past two years building and mobilising grassroots support and had drawn in swathes of new voters with their anti-corruption and transparency agenda, as well as toning down the more extreme Marxist messaging of the JVP. Dissanayake had also sought to distance his party from the violence of the past, apologising for the killings that took place.
In an election that was primarily focused on the economy, Dissanayake appeared to successfully capitalise on the anger and frustration that had emerged during the aragalaya. He adopted the movement’s critique of the political elite and called for an end to corruption and political patronage, as well as promising that those responsible for misdeeds would finally be held accountable. He has also pledged to renegotiate the terms of the IMF deal.
“The election result clearly shows the uprising that we witnessed in 2022 is not over,” said Pradeep Peiris, a political scientist at the University of Colombo.
As the election results were announced, there was a mood of optimism on the streets of Colombo. Mohammed Dilshad, 50, who works in tourism, said that after years of voting for the same two parties, people had felt let down and angry.
“Anura [Dissanayake] has never ruled the country, this time people have given them a mandate with great hope,” said Dilshad. “People want a system change. They have promised to reduce government spending. They have to deliver all the promises.”
Also among those running in the election was Namal Rajapaksa, the nephew of former president Gotabaya who had served in his cabinet. But in a sign of how much the political environment has changed since 2019, when Rajapaksa won a landslide victory, Namal came fourth, obtaining less than 3% of the vote.
Aanya Wipulasena contributed reporting from Colombo