Marxist Dissanayake leads early vote count in Sri Lanka's presidential election

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Marxist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake leads early official results in Sri Lanka's presidential election, according to tallies released on Sunday by the Election Commission, but he is still short of the 50% needed for victory.

The election held Saturday is crucial as the country seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history and the resulting political upheaval.

The election, contested by 38 candidates, was largely a three-way race among Dissanayake, incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa.

Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, was leading with 47% of total votes counted, followed by Premadasa with nearly 28% and Wickremesinghe with 15%.

It was a strong showing for Dissanayake, who won just over 3% of votes in a previous presidential election in 2019, and suggests voters are fatigued with the old political guard, which has been accused of pushing Sri Lanka toward economic instability.

Wickremesinghe's Foreign Minister Ali Sabry congratulated Dissanayake on the social platform X and said he hopes Dissanayake will “lead with a commitment to transparency, integrity, and the long-term good of the country.”

“I wish Mr. Dissanayake and his team every success in their efforts to lead Sri Lanka forward,” Sabry added.

However, neither Wickremesinghe nor Premadasa has conceded defeat.

If no candidate secures at least 50% of the total votes there will not be a separate runoff.

The Sri Lankan election system allows voters to select three candidates on their ballots in the order of their preference. If no candidate secures a majority, the top two will be retained and the ballots of the eliminated candidates will be checked for preferences given to either of the top two candidates, and those votes will be added to their respective tallies.

The candidate with the highest number of votes after that will be declared the winner.

The election was a virtual referendum on Wickremesinghe’s leadership of a fragile recovery, including restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt under an International Monetary Fund bailout program after it defaulted in 2022.

Dissanayake, 55, leads the left-leaning coalition National People’s Power, an umbrella of civil society groups, professionals, Buddhist clergy and students.

No major incidents were reported during the vote but authorities declared a countrywide curfew until midday Sunday as a precaution, police said.

There were 17 million eligible voters and final results are expected Sunday evening.

The government announced Thursday that it passed the final hurdle in debt restructuring by reaching an agreement in principle with private bond holders.

At the time of its default, Sri Lanka’s local and foreign debt totaled $83 billion. The government says it has now restructured more than $17 billion.

Despite a significant improvement in key economic figures, Sri Lankans are struggling with high taxes and living costs.

Both Premadasa and Dissanayake say they will renegotiate the IMF deal to make austerity measures more bearable. Wickremesinghe has warned that any move to alter the basics of the agreement could delay the release of a fourth tranche of nearly $3 billion that is crucial to maintaining stability.

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis resulted largely from excessive borrowing on projects that did not generate revenue. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s insistence on using scarce foreign reserves to prop up the currency, the rupee, contributed to the economy’s free fall.

The economic collapse brought a severe shortage of essentials such as medicine, food, cooking gas and fuel, with people spending days waiting in line to obtain them. It led to rioting in which protesters took over key buildings including the president’s house, his office and the prime minister’s office, forcing then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

Wickremesinghe was elected by a parliamentary vote in July 2022 to cover the remainder of Rajapaksa’s five-year term.