Colombo, Sep 22 (EFE).- Aruna Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of a Marxist group that led two deadly armed uprisings in Sri Lanka in the 1970s and 1980s, was elected the country’s president on Sunday following a second round runoff.
The elections were the first since civil unrest in 2022 led to the resignation and departure from the country of the then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is widely blamed for the economic crisis gripping the country.
Dissanayake, 55, secured 42.31% of the vote for the left-wing populist National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, the Sri Lankan electoral commissioner, Saman Rathnayake, told a press conference.
In second place was Sanjith Premadasa of the center-left opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), with 32.76 % of the vote.
This is the first time that the Electoral Commission of Sri Lanka carried out a recount, after no candidate won 50% of voters’ first choice in the first count.
The second count pitted the two leading contenders against each other, with the ballots of voters who marked them as second or third choices added to the candidates’ respective tallies.
The outgoing president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was third with 2.2 million votes.
According to local media, Dissanayake is expected to be sworn in on Monday.
He rode to victory on the back of strong support among younger voters.
But his role as the leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a Marxist group that led two armed revolts against the government in the 1970s and 1980s in which at least 60,000 people were estimated to have died, means he will struggle to win over much of the electorate.
Dissanayake capitalized on the popular discontent with the severe economic crisis that is crippling the island nation.
He campaigned on a promise to end corruption as well as to renegotiate a loan of almost 3 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The bailout, approved by Wickremesinghe, entailed a series of reforms including a tax hike that sparked civil unrest.
According to the Electoral Commission, turnout in the elections was 79 percent, with more than 17 million voters who were summoned to the polls on Saturday. EFE
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