Marxist Dissanayake wins Sri Lanka’s presidential election 

The Election Commission announced Sunday that Marxist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake won Sri Lanka’s presidential election after voters rejected the old political guard, widely accused of pushing the South Asian nation into economic ruin.

Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, secured victory over opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over the country two years ago after its economy hit bottom.

Dissanayake received 5,740,179 votes, followed by Premadasa with 4,530,902, Election Commission data showed.

Saturday’s election was crucial as the country seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history and the resulting political upheaval.

“This achievement is not the result of any single person’s work but the collective effort of hundreds of thousands of you. Your commitment has brought us this far, and I am deeply grateful for that. This victory belongs to all of us,” Dissanayake said in a post on X.

Outgoing President Wickremesinghe congratulated Dissanayake in a video statement and said he hoped he would successfully carry forward the economic recovery efforts. The election was a virtual referendum on Wickremesinghe’s leadership, including restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt under an International Monetary Fund bailout after it defaulted in 2022.