Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a neo-Marxist outsider candidate, has won the Sri Lankan presidency, delivering the nation’s biggest political upset since independence from Britain and throwing fresh doubt on its fragile IMF-backed debt restructuring.
After a hectic five-week campaign, the 55-year-old leftist beat incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took power in 2022 after the country defaulted on its foreign debt and its leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled, and the main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, son of a former president.
Sri Lanka’s election commission officially declared Dissanayake, widely known by his initials AKD, the duly elected president around 7.30pm on Sunday.