Sri Lankan Presidential Elections Go to Second Round, Incumbent President Defeated
NEW DELHI, Sept 22: The Sri Lankan presidential elections has gone into historical second round as none of the candidates could secure the necessary 50 per cent of the votes even as the present incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe has already been eliminated from the race.
The Election Commission of Sri Lanka on Sunday ordered a second preference count after no candidate secured over 50% of the votes needed to win the presidential elections in line with the Presidential Elections Act of 1981.
Elections Commission Chairman R.L.A.M. Ratnayake said Anura Kumara Dissanayake of Peoples’ Liberation Front and Sajith Premadasa have secured maximum votes in the 2024 presidential election. However, he said as neither has secured more than 50% vote, the second preference vote will be counted and added to these two candidates.
Marxist lawmaker Dissanayake, 55, leads the left-leaning coalition National People’s Power, an umbrella of civil society groups, professionals, Buddhist clergy and students.
Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, was leading with 39% of the votes counted, followed by opposition leader Premadasa with 34%, according to tallies released by the Election Commission.
The election held Saturday is crucial as the country seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history and the resultant political upheaval. Contested by as many as 38 candidates, it, however, was a three-way race between Dissanayake, Premadasa and Wickremesinghe.
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.
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.
(Manas Dasgupta)
