Sri Lanka Election Commission confirms Dissanayake's victory in presidential election

The Sri Lankan Election Commission has confirmed the victory of Member of Parliament Anura Kumara Dissanayake in the presidential election, News.Az reports, citing Bloomberg .

Following the vote count, 5.7 million voters cast their ballots for Dissanayake, while 4.5 million voted for his opponent, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa. For the first time in Sri Lanka's history, the outcome of the presidential race was decided in a second round of vote counting, Reuters reported.

In the event of his victory, Dissanayake has promised to dissolve parliament within 45 days of taking office. The candidate also announced plans to reduce taxes and review the debt agreement with the IMF. Premadasa garnered 42% of the vote in the last presidential election in 2019.

Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe took office in 2022 after protests forced former head of state Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and subsequently resign. The unrest in Sri Lanka began in April 2022 due to a severe economic crisis, partly caused by the decline in tourism during the pandemic. On April 12, for the first time in the country’s history, the authorities declared a default on external debt amounting to $51 billion due to a lack of foreign currency reserves. Since Rajapaksa left office before his term ended, the new leader was elected by parliament in accordance with the constitution to serve the remainder of the current presidential term.

News.Az