Salute to Anura

Anura Kumara Dissanayake was declared the ninth Executive President of Sri Lanka last night after an unprecedented second count preference vote. 

He was declared winner with around 43% of the vote polled, in keeping with the constitutional requirements for the election of the President. The win is historic for several reasons. Dissanayake has gone from the less than 4% of the vote he obtained in the 2019 Presidential election to gaining nearly 40% more votes from among the 17.6 million registered voters in the country. While he fell short of the 50.1% required to win in the first round of voting, he won in the second round, where the 50.1% threshold is no longer a mandatory requirement.

This is the first time since the introduction of the Executive Presidency that a Presidential election has gone to a second-round count. In all previous elections, the candidate won with more than 50% of the votes in the first count.

Saying that the task ahead for Dissanayake and his National People’s Party (NPP) is daunting would be an understatement. The country’s economic woes are far from over, and while some level of stability has been achieved with the intervention of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), things remain fragile. For the new President, addressing the economic woes of the people should be the priority.

A glance through the election results show that Dissanayake scored heavily in areas largely populated by working class Sri Lankans who have been reeling under the burden of increased taxes and the high cost of living. It is safe to say that economic woes pushed people towards the NPP candidate, who has promised to alleviate some of these woes. He also scored heavily in the postal votes, illustrating the anger and frustration among State sector workers, who have clearly shown that the economic policies in place for the past two years have left them deeply unhappy and dissatisfied. Also resonating with voters who backed him was his strong anti-corruption message.

On the other hand, the vote also shows that Sri Lanka remains a deeply divided country. Dissanayake is a “minority” President in the sense that those who voted against him are in the majority rather than those who voted in favour of him. In the North, East and the Central districts with a large Tamil vote base, he won little support. Like Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019, Dissanayake seems to have won on a largely Sinhala vote, which places a greater burden on him to unite the country.

Soon after his victory was confirmed, Dissanayake posted a message on his X account calling for unity: “The unity of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and all Sri Lankans is the bedrock of this new beginning. The New Renaissance we seek will rise from this shared strength and vision,” he wrote. It’s a good start and the citizens of this country expect him to walk the talk on this as well as on many other pledges he has made during the election campaign.

Sajith Premadasa who came in second polled around 32% of the vote and it is no doubt deeply disappointed. For outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who led the country for the past two years, it could be the curtain call for his long political career. He deserves a word of gratitude for bringing about a reasonable level of stability in the country that enabled the peaceful conduct of the election and a smooth transition of power.

In a democracy, the voters have the final say and Sri Lankan voters have chosen their next President. Now all citizens must rally around him and give him the “chance’ that many of his supporters sought for him. To President Dissanayake, we wish strength and fortitude to build a better country for all its citizens.