Anudha Kumara Dishanayake will take oath as President today. His swearing-in will be held at the Presidential Secretariat.
Leftist Anudha Kumara Dishanayake won the Sri Lankan presidential election. The country’s elected president came to power more than two years after then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in the face of mass protests.
The Election Commission of Sri Lanka confirmed this information on Sunday (September 22) around 8:00 PM. Leftist Anudha Kumara Dishanayake won the presidential election held on Saturday (September 21), the commission said. He was elected president with 42.31 percent of the vote.
Anudha’s closest rivals were fellow opposition John Balawaga (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa and incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe. Sajith Premadasa got 32.76 percent votes. Ranil got only 17 percent votes.
Earlier on Saturday, after the counting of votes, no candidate got an absolute majority. So the calculation is done in the second round. After counting the votes, the Election Commission declared National People’s Power (NPP) alliance leader Anudha Kumara Dishanayake as the winner.
The NPP alliance said that Anudha Kumara Dishanayake will be sworn in as the President today, Monday (September 23). His swearing-in will be held at the Presidential Secretariat.
Earlier, Chairman of the Lankan Election Commission RLAM Ratnanayake said that Anudha Kumara Dishanayake and Sajith Premadasa got the highest votes in the 2024 presidential election. But none of them got at least 50 percent of the votes.
According to Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror, Anudha Kumara Dishanayake got 5.634 thousand 915 votes, which is 42.31 percent of the total votes. Sajith Premadasa got 43 lakh 63 thousand 35 votes, 32.76 percent. On the other hand, Ranil Wickramasinghe got 22 lakh 99 thousand 767 votes (17.27 percent).
Marxist and pro-China Anudha Kumara Dishanayake was ahead in the first round of counting. Sajith Premadasa is known as a pro-Indian. He had India’s support.
On Saturday from 7 am to 4 pm local time, 1 crore 7 million voters of the country cast their votes in Sri Lanka’s presidential election. Election analysts have already indicated that no candidate will get an absolute majority in this election.
