COLOMBO: National Peoples’ Power (NPP) candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 56, was on Sunday declared president-elect by the Election Commission of Sri Lanka at the Election Secretariat in Colombo. Addressing election officials, presidential candidates, and political party representatives, Dissanayake promised to usher in a new political culture and strive to serve 22 million Sri Lankans “with deep commitment and respect” and to create a new political culture that celebrates political differences and honours people’s dignity and rights.
Dissanayake, who polled 5,634,915 votes (42.31%), was declared winner after a second preferential count, as none of the candidates reached the constitutionally required 50% plus 1 vote. In the second preferential count, he obtained 105,264 votes. His main rival, Opposition Leader and Leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya Sajith Premadasa, polled 4,363,035 votes (32.76%) and 107,867 second preference votes.
The president-elect noted the need to amend the election laws to enable certain sections of the public such as migrant workers to be able to vote, and promised to accord it high priority. However, he said it would not be possible to pass these amendments before the next bunch of elections.
“Our country is unstable in many ways. There are economic, political, social, geopolitical challenges before us. They need to be addressed with care. But to address them, the NPP believed the rulers have to be mandated by the people. Without a public mandate, it becomes a distorted administration as we witnessed recently,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s election history has been marred by election violence from time to time. But the 2024 polls witnessed minimum incidents.
President-elect Dissanayake appeals to public to abjure violence, intimidation
“No person should be killed for supporting a political movement. It is a citizen’s inherent right. People must be free to engage in politics and not be victimised for that,” he added. Towards this, Sri Lanka must break free from the old ways of celebrating political victories — by hurting and harming political opponents. There should be no pain caused to another because of elections,” he emphasised.
Dissanayake appealed to the public to desist from all forms of violence and intimidation and to ensure that all elections hereafter, are conducted peacefully. “If we hold one peaceful election and the next one is violent, that’s not true change. We need to see consistency in the exercising of our democratic rights,” he said.
The president-elect noted that Sri Lanka was divided along many lines. “We must reduce these divisions as much as we can. Different political parties exist and that’s democratic. While we support different political ideologies, debate and disagree, there must be enough room to come together to make collective decisions for the benefit of the people. We must overcome many of our differences, whenever required, to ensure people’s aspirations are met.”
“Such agreements are about political consensus and bonds we create to make peoples’ victories possible. Laws are not enough — there’s much that’s beyond the legal framework to ensure true change — and that’s possible when a new political culture is ushered in only,” Dismayed added.
Promising to honour the mandate bestowed on him, Dissanayake said to serve all Sri Lankans with commitment and to lead the nation towards an era of revival — economic, political, social, and cultural. “This is a historic moment and massive public aspirations ride on this people’s mandate. Being able to hold this presidential election itself is an achievement,” he said.
Dissanayake will be sworn in as the ninth president of Sri Lanka.
