Sri Lanka presidential poll highlights: Dissanayake on way to become Sri Lankan President, according to postal voting results

National People’s Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, grabs a commanding early lead. He has won about 53% of a million votes counted so far in the election, Sri Lanka’s Election Commission data shows. 

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa is second at 22%, ahead of President Ranil Wickremesinghe in third place.

-Reuters

National People’s Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake seems set to become Sri Lanka’s ninth executive president with an impressive show in the presidential election, according to postal voting results of seven electoral districts.

The 56-year-old leader had taken an unassailable lead over his rivals, the main Opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, 57, and the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75.

According to results declared in postal voting of seven of the 22 electoral districts, the NPP leader has gained 56% of the votes, with his rivals trail him by grabbing 19% each.

According to the trend shown in postal voting results, analysts say Mr. Dissanayake is likely to win the presidency by more than 50% votes.

According to PTI, 75% polling was recorded in Sri Lanka’s Presidential election 2024.

Polling concluded in Sri Lanka on Saturday with no violence or security breaches reported anywhere from all 22 electoral districts in the crucial Presidential Elections.

The election officials said everyone who had entered the polling station by 4 p.m. was allowed to vote beyond the deadline.

- PTI

Voting for the crucial Presidential Elections concluded at 4 p.m. in Sri Lanka on Saturday in the island nation’s first poll since its worst economic meltdown in 2022.

Officials are yet to release the final voting percentage. “By 2 p.m., more than 60% of the eligible 17 million eligible people had voted,” they said.

“At 4 p.m., we will try to start postal vote counting and at 6 p.m., we would like to start normal counting. Within two or three hours after the counting of votes starts, we can display the results,” said Colombo City Deputy Election Commissioner MKSKK Bandaramapa earlier in the day.

- PTI

Saturday is a rest day for the ongoing Sri Lanka-New Zealand Test match due to the presidential election in Sri Lanka. On Friday, which was day 3, the hosts lost some of their momentum to reach 237-4 at stumps in Galle.

It is the first time that a Test has accommodated such a break since 2008 when Bangladesh hosted Sri Lanka.

-Reuters

Officials estimated 30% voter turnout by noon.

The Police Elections Bureau said that voting was proceeding peacefully, with no reports of violence so far. “At 4 p.m., we will try to start postal vote counting and at 6 p.m. we would like to start normal counting. All the election management systems are okay... Within two or three hours (after the counting of votes starts), we can display the results,” said Colombo City Deputy Election Commissioner MKSKK Bandaramapa.

-PTI

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The Election Commission of Sri Lanka said it has received 85 complaints about violations of election related to the 2024 Sri Lanka presidential election by 10.00 a.m.

The Sri Lanka Election Commission will thoroughly review every complaint to ensure transparency and fairness throughout the election process, it said in a statement.

Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo has witnessed 20% voter turnout till 10 a.m., while Galle, Kurunegala, and Polonnaruwa saw 18%, 30%, and 38% turnout respectively.

With Sri Lankans heading to polls, here are 5 reasons why this election is different:

Three-cornered race:

All past presidential polls in the island nation had two main candidates and one certain winner. This is the first time three candidates are at the fore. Incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, and popular opposition legislator Anura Kumara Dissanayake are in what appears a close race for the country’s top office.

Substantially altered political landscape:

The country’s two traditional parties — the centre-left Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the centre-right United National Party (UNP) — have been decimated over the last few years. Their breakaway formations have detached themselves from the parent parties. The National People’s Power (NPP) Alliance, led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP or People’s Liberation Front), has emerged as a prominent third front, vowing to shake up the old political establishment.

Sri Lanka’s politics have mostly been dominated by men since the island nation introduced universal suffrage in 1931. It’s a trend seen in most countries globally — in 2023, a Pew Research Center analysis found only 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations had women as the head of government.

To be sure, women have held some important positions in the Sri Lankan government in the past.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike served her first term as prime minister of Sri Lanka for nearly five years starting in 1960. Even though it was her prime minister husband’s assassination that forced her political entry, she held the distinction of being the world’s first woman to be elected prime minister and would go one to hold that office twice more. Her younger daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, later became the country’s first and only female president, holding office from 1994 to 2005.

Both these women came from families with a political legacy. But even Sri Lankan women with political backgrounds tend to enter into politics only after the death or assassination of their male relatives, in most cases their husbands — particularly during the brutal civil war that began in 1983 and ended in 2009.

For a country that passed a law in 2016 mandating local councils must be at least 25% women, a move widely seen as progressive in promoting gender equality, many feel there should be more parity in politics by now.

-AP

Women make up more than half of the voters in Sri Lanka, but not a single one will be on the ballot in Saturday’s presidential election.

The island nation of more than 22 million people is voting for a president to take its economy forward after it went through an unprecedented financial crisis two years ago that led to the ouster of its head of government. The election will allow more than 17 million eligible voters to choose from a record 38 candidates. But women — who account for nearly 9 million voters — will have no gender representation.

Nimesha, a 20-year-old information technology student, said even though presidents have an obligation to offer solutions to the problems faced by the public regardless of their gender, a woman president “would give more attention to serve the female voters” and focus on issues that affect them.

-AP

Namal Rajapaksa, the presidential candidate and son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, cast his vote in the 2024 Sri Lankan presidential election. He also encouraged citizens to do the same, emphasising that every vote counts for the future of Sri Lanka.

Namal Rajapaksa, representing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, is one of the prominent candidates, alongside incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa.

Sharing a post on X, Rajapaksa wrote, “We just cast our votes! Your turn now--get out there and make your voice heard. Every vote matters for the future of Sri Lanka! #GoVote.”

Sri Lankans head to the polls this Saturday to choose the country’s 10th president, marking the nation’s first presidential election since the devastating economic crisis of 2022, Al Jazeera reported.

-ANI

A lawyer by training, Ranil Wickremesinghe comes from a politically influential family. In his long career, he was rarely known to be a people’s man. During the island’s tumultuous 1970s and 1980s that saw two armed insurrections by Sinhalese youth led by the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the UNP was accused of grave rights abuses against dissidents.

​Read this retrospective profile​ on Sri Lanka’s President Ranil ​ Wickremesinghe, from when he ascended to Presidency following the 2022 crisis. ​

Fixing Sri Lanka’s battered economy and wiping out racism will be top priority for a National People’s Power (NPP) government, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, among the frontrunners in the September 21 race. 

​Read Mr. Dissanayake’s exclusive chat withThe Hindu​

Sri Lanka’s northern Tamil voters are torn this presidential election, between a candidate who may win, and one who will certainly lose. 

While some are backing one of the frontrunners among the Sinhalese candidates, others have decided to support a Tamil candidate. Every voter knows well that “Tamil common candidate” P. Ariyanethiran — fielded jointly by some political and civil society groups based in the island nation’s north and east — cannot win, given the numeric reality of Sri Lanka’s electoral map. 

​Meera Srinivasan writes​ on the disappointment of Tamil voters with southern leadership over long-pending demands, and a divided Tamil polity leading them consider different options .

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Watch | The economy is the biggest issue in Sri Lanka’s presidential election

Sri Lanka's presidential election on September 21 features 39 candidates, including frontrunners Wickremesinghe, Premadasa, and Dissanayake.

More than 17 million people are eligible to vote in the election, with more than 63,000 police deployed to protect polling booths and counting centres.

“We also have anti-riot squads on standby in case of any trouble, but so far everything is peaceful,” police spokesman Nihal Talduwa said.

“In some areas, we have had to deploy police to ensure polling booths are safe from wild animals, especially wild elephants.”

Polls close at 4:00 pm (1030 GMT) with counting to begin on Saturday evening.

A result is expected on Sunday, but an official outcome could be delayed if the contest is close.

Schools were closed on Friday to be converted to polling stations, which will be staffed by more than 200,000 public servants deployed to conduct the vote.

-AFP

Polls opened in Sri Lanka’s presidential vote on Saturday, AFP journalists saw, marking the island nation’s first election since an unprecedented economic crisis two years ago.

Voting booths will close at 4:00 pm (1030 GMT) with President Ranil Wickremesinghe facing an uphill battle to retain office after implementing unpopular austerity measures.

-AFP

Sri Lanka’s ninth Presidential election is being held under strange circumstances for more than one reason.

The country is going to the polls two years after the country witnessed a tumultuous political revolt preceded by an acute economic crisis. Even in 1953, the rising cost of living, drove the then Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake to step down, after the Left’s massive hartal. But his successor, John Kotelawala, assumed office under much less painful conditions than what Ranil Wickremesinghe faced in July 2022 when Mr. Wickremesinghe became President.

T. Ramakrishnan’s ​writes on the stakes of this presidential election for the island country​

From the time of its Independence in 1948, Sri Lanka was a parliamentary democracy. It adopted a republican constitution in 1972, in which parliamentary democracy continued. In 1978, the second republican constitution changed it into a presidential form of government and vested the President’s office with enormous powers.

In this article from March 2023, Meera Srinivasan looks at the island country’s executive presidency

Why is the election on September 21 significant for Sri Lanka? How has the political landscape in Sri Lanka changed in recent years, especially after former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted mid-term during the island’s economic crisis? Who are the leading candidates in the presidential election?

The new President’s job will be far from easy. Meera Srinivasan explains in this article.

Voting begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m., with counting scheduled to start shortly after.

Sri Lanka’s ranked voting system allows voters to cast three preferential votes for their chosen candidates, with any candidate securing 50% of the votes plus one, being declared winner.

If no candidate wins 50% in the first round there is a second round of counting between the two frontrunners, with the preferential votes of other candidates redistributed, an outcome analysts say is likely given the close nature of the election.

The Election Commission will formally announce the winner, probably on Sunday.

- Reuters