National People’s Power leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake wins Sri Lanka’s 2024 presidential election

Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been elected as the 9th Executive President of Sri Lanka. After counting the preferential votes, the Election Commission announced that Anura Kumara Dissanayake got 5,740,179 votes and the percentage is 42.31%. His opponent, Sajith Premadasa secured 4,530,902 votes which is 32.76%. Ranil Wickramasinghe, who came in third place, got 2,299,767 votes and the percentage is 17.27%.

According to the counting of votes in the first round of the 2024 presidential election, the National People’s Party candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake had won the first place. Sajith Premadasa has secured the second positions, and it is special that both of them could not get more than 50% of votes.

According to the counting of votes in the first round, Anura Kumara Dissanayake has obtained 5,634,915 votes and the percentage is 42.31%. Sajith Premadasa got 4,363,035 votes and had a percentage of 32.76%. Accordingly, Anura Kumara Dissanayake got 1,271,880 more votes than Sajith Premadasa according to the preliminary round vote count. However, Anura Kumara emerged as the winner after the second count in which the voters’ second and third choice candidates were counted, as both failed to secure more than 50% of the vote.

Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake said to Sri Lankans that “this victory belongs to all of us” in a message on X social media platform,

The dream we have nurtured for centuries is finally coming true. This achievement is not the result of any single person’s work, but the collective effort of hundreds of thousands of you. Your commitment has brought us this far, and for that, I am deeply grateful. This victory… pic.twitter.com/N7fBN1YbQA

— Anura Kumara Dissanayake (@anuradisanayake) September 22, 2024

The current President Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe got 17% of the votes and placed him third in the poll. He was eliminated in the second count, which was only between the two leading players. Wickramasinghe congratulated his successor. “With great love and respect for this beloved nation, I entrust its future to the new president,” Mr. Wickramasinghe said in a statement.

Until this weekend’s voting, the winner of all eight presidential elections held in Sri Lanka since 1982 appeared in the first round of counting. This referendum has been introduced as one of the closest in the history of this country. 17 million Sri Lankans were eligible to vote on Saturday in what the country’s election commission said was the most peaceful in the country’s history.