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Sri Lanka got an elected president more than two years after the president fled the country in the face of mass protests. The Election Commission of the country said at eight o’clock on Sunday night that the leftist Anudha Kumara Dishanayake won the presidential election held the previous day on Saturday.

Anudha Kumara’s election as president ended the Rajapakse family’s more than a decade and a half of single rule in Sri Lanka. Since Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948, Sri Lanka has been ruled by two dominant political parties or their alliances or parts of them. One of these is the United National Party (UNP), led by the Rajapakse family. Mahinda Rajapakse has been elected president and prime minister from the party several times. His younger brother Gotabaya Rajapakse was the last president before fleeing the country in the face of a popular coup.

As announced by the Election Commission, Anudha Kumara Dishanayake was elected as the President with 42.31 percent votes. His two closest rivals, fellow opposition leader John Balawaga (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa, got 32.76 percent of the vote. Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe got only 17 percent votes.

Sri Lanka’s presidential election was held on Saturday. At the end of the first round of vote counting on Sunday, it can be seen that not a single candidate got an absolute majority. After counting the votes in the second round, the Election Commission declared National People’s Power (NPP) leader Anudha Kumara Dishanayake as the winner.

After the Election Commission’s announcement, the NPP alliance informed that Anudha Kumara Dishanayake will be sworn in as the President on Monday morning. His swearing-in ceremony at the Presidential Secretariat will be informal.

The common people of Sri Lanka took to the streets in 2022 to protest against the acute shortage of daily commodities including food, fuel, medicine. In the face of strong public discontent, anti-government protests turned into mass movements. At one stage, thousands of angry people entered the residence of the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksha. Gotabaya fled the country. Then Ranil Wickramasinghe was elected as the President by the Parliament of the country.

Who is this director?

Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) chief Anudha Kumara Dishanayake was the candidate of the NPP alliance in this election. This alliance has never been an opposition party in Sri Lanka before. The alliance had only three seats in the country’s 225-member parliament.

After Gotabaya Rajapakse fled the country in the face of mass protests, JVP’s popularity began to rise in the changed circumstances. The party played an active role in that mass protest. After the agitation, the JVP called for greater change. The party’s staunch stance on social justice and against corruption has attracted citizens. Anudha Kumara Dishanayek’s personal appeal has grown with the party.

The JVP led two Marxist-inspired insurgencies in the 1970s and 1980s. The state was not slow to retaliate. At least 60,000 people belonging to the party have been killed in mass arrests, torture, abductions and massacres. Among them were most of the senior leaders including party founder Rohana Wijebira.

After the failed coup, Dishanayake became a member of the party’s politburo. The party abandons the path of violence. According to analysts, Dishanayake has managed to build a larger coalition among various sections of the society. This paved the way for him to win.

Managing the economy is the biggest challenge.

Parliament elected Ranil Wickremesinghe as president after Gotabaya fled to Rajapaksa in the face of protests. After more than two years under his leadership bankrupt Sri Lanka somewhat recovered from economic crisis. But according to the terms of the loan taken from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government took various steps including increasing taxes. Its pressure falls on the common people.

Analysts say that people voted for Anudha Kumara Dishanayake in the hope of getting out of the economic woes. Now his big task will be to pull the country out of unprecedented economic crisis. As a result, the biggest challenge for the new president will be to restore stability to the economy. Now it is to be seen how much direction Dishanaye can show to the people of the country.