Anura Kumara Dissanayaka set to become Sri Lanka’s next president
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Sep 22, 2024 10:29
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Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the National People's Power (NPP), is set to become Sri Lanka’s ninth executive president, according to early postal voting results.Polling for the presidential election was held on Saturday across over 13,400 polling stations in 22 electoral districts. About 75% of the 17 million eligible voters participated in the polling, as reported by the election commission.
The ongoing count in Saturday’s poll showed Anura Kumara Dissanayaka on 52 per cent with just over a million votes counted, well above his nearest rivals.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was in second, with 23.3 per cent of the vote. Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe – who took office at the peak of the 2022 economic collapse and imposed tough austerity policies per the terms of an IMF bailout – was trailing at a distant third with around 16 per cent of the vote.
Wickremesinghe has yet to concede, and an official result was not expected until later Sunday, but foreign minister Ali Sabry said the early count made it clear that Dissanayaka had won.
