Sri Lanka elections result 2024: Anura Kumara Dissanayake takes oath as President in Colombo

SRI LANKA, Sept 23: Left-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake became the President of Sri Lanka on Sunday following a historic run-off election. The National People’s Power leader defeated his closest rival Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya during the second round of counting. Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe had been eliminated in the first round after he failed to become within the top two in the vote list.

Dissanayake took his oath as Sri Lanka's President on Monday.

Sri Lankans went to the polls on Saturday to elect the nation’s 10th president, marking the first election since the devastating 2022 economic crisis that led to a loan default. Turnout was at nearly 70 percent an hour before polling stations closed at 4:00 pm (1030 GMT), an election commission official said, citing provisional figures.

Counting to the Sri Lanka elections to declare the 10th President of the nation of 22 million people began at 6 pm.

The Election Commission had ordered a second round of counting after no candidate secured over 50% votes needed to be declared the winner of Saturday's election. No poll in Sri Lanka had ever progressed to the second round of counting until now — with a single candidates always emerging as clear winners based on first-preference votes.