Sri Lanka's leftist National People's Power (NPP) candidate Anura Kumara Dishanayake has been elected as the country's new president in the first election since the fall of Mahinda Rajapaksa's government amid mass protests. This alliance was not even in opposition earlier. Dishanayake, head of the pro-China Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) party, received only three percent of the vote in the 2019 presidential election. All in all, Anura is a surprise.
According to the analysis of international media, Sri Lanka's economic turmoil is the reason for this radical change in the attitude of the people of the country in just five years. In 2022, the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother President Gotabaya Rajapaksa were ousted in the face of massive protests. Ranil took the responsibility of the President of the Interim Government in the voting of the Members of Parliament. But Ranil could not bring the economic crisis that fueled the mass protests against Rajapaksa much under control. Therefore, it is believed that 56-year-old Dishanayake was chosen as the Sri Lankan president after expressing no confidence in Ranil's leadership.
Leftist politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the election held on Saturday (September 21) with 42.41 percent votes. No candidate gets more than 50 percent of the total votes in the first round, so a second round of counting takes place. Never before has there been an incident where 50 percent of the votes are not confirmed in Sri Lankan elections.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, the nearest challenger to the winner Dissanayake, got 32.76 percent of the votes. Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe is third with 17 percent votes.
There were 39 candidates in Sri Lanka's presidential election this year. However, the Marxist Dissanayake was elected as the next president of Sri Lanka.
Dissanayake's rise to power against Sri Lanka's long-dominant Rajapaksa family is like a fairy tale. Born in 1968, Dissanayake became active in politics during his student days. Over time, he gained a reputation as a harsh critic of corruption and poor governance in Sri Lanka.
Dissanayake has managed to present himself as different from established politicians for a long time. Although the JVP has only three seats in Sri Lanka's 225-member parliament, its popularity has skyrocketed in recent opinion polls.
In 1995, Dissanayake joined the JVP's politburo. Elected Member of Parliament for the first time in 2000. From 2004 to 2005, he served as the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation. He served as Chief Opposition Whip from 2015 to 2018.
He was elected as the leader of the JVP at the 17th National Convention held on 2 February 2014. This long political journey has brought him to an important and influential position in the Sri Lankan political arena.
According to international political analysts, Anura Kumara Dissanayake has managed to build a larger coalition among various sections of society in the economically troubled country. The alliance includes intellectuals, artists, retired police and military personnel, various trade unions. Notably, JVP once identified them as mass enemies. Now the party's most effective slogan is its promise to fight corruption.
Since Sri Lanka's independence in 1948, the country has been ruled by two dominant political parties or their coalitions or parts of them. They are United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
But Dissanayake has managed to portray himself as a representative of a common man. He is also not a member of a rich or powerful family, which makes him acceptable to many voters.