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The election commission of Sri Lanka on Sunday ordered the counting of the second preference vote after no candidate secured over 50 per cent votes in the recently concluded Presidential election. This is the first time in the history of Sri Lanka the second preference vote is being counted as per the Presidential Elections Act of 1981, after the executive presidency came into existence in the 1970s. Out of the 17 million voters, close to 70 people voted to elect their new president.

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Elections Commission Chairman R.L.A.M. Ratnayake said that Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the JVP-NPP combine and Sajith Premadasa have emerged as the first two in the race. While Anura was leading the race with over 42 per cent votes, Sajith emerged second with 35 per cent votes. However, with no candidate securing 50 percent plus one vote, the second preference votes are now being counted. The three-cornered race and the fragmented electorate had made the fight tough for both Sajith and Anura.

Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe emerged a distant third while, the scion of the Rajapaksa clan, Namal Rajapaksa secured less than four per cent votes. The Tamil common candidate Pakiyaselvam Ariyanenthiran emerged second after Sajith in the Tamil-dominated northern Sri Lanka. In Jaffna, Ariyanentiran leads the race, while districts like Trincomallee in the East had voted for Anura. The southern districts begin from Colombo.

This is the first election after the country witnessed a huge people uprising and ousted the Rajapaksas from power. Sri Lanka has been reeling under an unprecedented economic crisis, price rise and inflation, even after Ranil Wickremesinghe worked on austerity measures with the International Monetary Fund. While the earlier elections were bipolar, this election had three prominent faces. On the other side, this election assumes significance as the most powerful Rajapaksas have been completely out of the picture due to the emergence of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) - National Peoples Power (NPP) combine. The SLFP and the UNP which were the most powerful parties in Sri Lanka all these wide are no longer relevant in Sri Lankan politics.

Anura’s emergence and his likely ascent to the Sri Lankan executive presidency are meteoric as he secured a mere 3.2 per cent votes in 2019 election. Gotabaya Rajapaksa then won with 69 lakh votes, only to be brought down from power by the people in 2022.

Anura’s campaign to reach the people began in 2021, when Gotabaya came up with a new fertiliser policy. Since then Anura and his team began working with the people and also participated in the Janatha Aragalaya or the people uprising in 2022. “We became part of that struggle, not as leaders or planners, but as participants. As a political movement, the NPP recognised the significant challenges in fulfilling the aspirations of that struggle. While anarchy is not a solution, and some form of constitutional authority must be maintained, the core demands of the people were not fully addressed in the resulting political framework. However, the people have entrusted us with the responsibility of carrying their hopes forward through the election. We benefit from the momentum of that uprising and the people’s desire for change,” Anura told The Week in an exclusive interview.

While the people have resonated with Anura, his victory might alter the geopolitics in the region as he is considered to be close to China. Though Anura says that he will maintain cordial relations with India, the JVP’s idea of continuing with the IMF with certain amendments and their stance on the investments made by the Adani’s in Sri Lanka are indications of Anura’s plans to alter the existing relations with India.