Sri Lanka: Dissanayake is New Social Democratic President

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the National People’s Power (NPP) social democratic coalition, won outright victory in the first round of the presidential election held in Sri Lanka on Saturday, September 21.

According to now final figures announced by Sri Lanka’s Election Commission, Dissanayake received 42.31% of voter support against 32.76% received by Sajith Premadasa, leader of the opposition United People’s Force (SJB) party. As widely predicted by opinion polls and confirmed by exit polls, outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75, wanted the election to confirm the mandate given to him by Parliament in 2022 after the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, accused of corruption and nepotism, but came third in the race with a paltry 17.27% of the vote.

And without wasting any more time, Sri Lanka’s newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took the oath of office on Monday morning (September 23), thus officially and immediately beginning his mandate as the Asian head of state. 55-year-old Dissanayake was sworn in at the ceremony presided over by Sri Lanka’s chief justice and attended by members of parliament, Buddhist monks dressed in typical orange robes, and leaders of the armed forces.

“This is a victory for democracy and for all the people of Sri Lanka,” the new president said, assuring voters that he “can rewrite the history of the country,” while outgoing President Wickremesinghe acknowledged his rival’s victory, entrusting him – “With love and respect” – with the country’s future.

“I will do everything I can to fully restore citizens’ trust in politics,” the president promised after taking the oath of office. “I am not a wizard or a sorcerer,” Dissanayake emphasized, adding that “there are things I know and others I don’t know, but I will take the best advice and do my best. For this, I need everyone’s support.”

According to the Sri Lankan press, the People’s Liberation Front (JVP), whose leader is Anura Kumara Dissanayake, is “a communist and Marxist-Leninist” party with a past marked by violence. During his election campaign, Dissanayake did his best to distance himself from the JVP’s dark past and “primarily sought to follow the younger generations” to whom he promised “a social, economic, and political transformation of the country that would be free from cronyism and rampant corruption.”

Upon assuming office, Dissanayake promised to build a rule of law in Sri Lanka based on public education with social protection guarantees. Among the most important tasks, Dissanayake cited digital transformation, fighting corruption, and abolishing the presidential system to return to parliamentary democracy.

Last year, under the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) financial assistance mechanism under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), Sri Lanka provided a broad economic and financial reform program that has been sharply criticized by the new president who wants to “review some of the terms that are detrimental to the economic condition of the people.”

Finally, the presidential election results put “in a state of fibrillation” Sri Lanka’s three main creditor countries: China, Japan, and India, which control respectively $4.3 billion, $2.7 billion, and $1.6 billion of Colombo’s external debt, which is estimated by the IMF at $43.3 billion.