Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, Sri Lanka’s Marxist candidate, has taken an early lead in Saturday’s presidential election, with 60.21% of the 164,000 votes counted from just over 700,000. The counting of postal ballots, which are the first to be tallied, is underway, and public servants are among those allowed to cast their votes by mail.
Voter turnout was around 76% of the 17.1 million eligible electorate, with final results expected later on Sunday. This election has become a referendum on incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s austerity measures, which were introduced following a $2.9 billion bailout from the IMF last year.
Dissanayaka, 55, has pledged to renegotiate the controversial IMF agreement that led to significant tax increases, the removal of energy subsidies, and rising prices. Early results show opposition leader Sajith Premadasa with 19.98%, closely followed by Wickremesinghe at 18.59%.
If elected, Dissanayaka would become Sri Lanka’s first Marxist head of state. In anticipation of the results, authorities have imposed an eight-hour evening curfew, as the country relies on manual counting rather than electronic voting. Wickremesinghe is campaigning for another term to continue his austerity policies, asserting that he has stabilized the economy following a severe debt crisis in 2022.
