Marxist political outsider takes oath as new Sri Lanka president as voters reject establishment parties

Dissanayake’s win represents a dramatic elevation in the fortunes of his left-wing JVP party

Sri Lanka’s new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake takes his oath of office in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 23 September 2024 (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a Marxist-leaning politician and leader of the People’s Liberation Front — JVP or Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna — has been sworn in as Sri Lanka’s new president after winning the election with 42.31 per cent of the vote.

On Monday morning, he pledged to address the country’s complex challenges, restore public confidence in politics, and tackle corruption. Mr Dissanayake, 55, led the Marxist-leaning National People’s Power coalition and secured victory over opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and 36 other candidates in Saturday’s election.

He garnered 5,740,179 votes, while Mr Premadasa received 4,530,902 votes. But he has pledged to work with other parties to turn around Sri Lanka’s severe economic troubles. “We have deeply understood that we are going to get a challenging country,” he said in a brief speech after assuming office on Monday. “We don’t believe that a government, a single party or an individual would be able to resolve this deep crisis.”

His victory follows a period of both political and fiscal turmoil that led to former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation amid mass protests in 2022. Mr Rajapaksa fled the country and was replaced by his prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who also ran in Saturday’s election but finished a distant third.

Mr Dissanayake’s meteoric rise from securing only 3 per cent of the vote in 2019 elevates his half-century-old leftist JVP party to an unprecedented role in the political landscape of Sri Lanka, which has been completely reshaped by grassroots protests over the past two years.

He was first elected to the Parliament in 2000 and briefly served as the agriculture and irrigation minister under then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga. He ran for president for the first time in 2019 but lost to Mr Rajapaksa.

“The people have placed their trust in me and my political movement,” Mr Dissanayake said on Sunday evening after he was officially declared the winner by the country’s election commission. “Everyone — those who voted and didn’t vote for me — we have a responsibility to take this country forward.”

Sri Lanka’s new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake takes oath as president of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 23 September 2024 (Anadolu via Getty Images)

This election marked the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that a presidential race required a second round of counting, as none of the candidates achieved the necessary 50 per cent of votes.

In Sri Lanka’s ranked-choice election system, voters can either select one candidate or list up to three candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives 50 per cent or more of the votes, a second round of counting takes into account the preferences of voters whose first choice did not make it to the top two.

In his victory speech, Mr Dissanayake called for unity among all Sri Lankans, including the Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslim communities, stating that a “new renaissance will rise from this shared strength and vision”.

“The dream we have nurtured for centuries is finally coming true. This achievement is not the result of any single person’s work, but the collective effort of hundreds of thousands of you. Your commitment has brought us this far, and for that, I am deeply grateful. This victory belongs to all of us,” he said in a post on X.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake positioned his National People’s Power coalition, led by his JVP party, as the best choice to address public demands for reforming Sri Lanka’s political patronage and corruption (Anadolu via Getty Images)

“I will do my best to fully restore the people’s confidence in politicians,” Mr Dissanayake said after taking his oath.

“I am not a conjurer, I am not a magician,” he added. “There are things I know and things I don’t know, but I will seek the best advice and do my best. For that, I need the support of everyone.”

Alan Keenan of International Crisis Group told Al Jazeera that Mr Dissanayake – “a charismatic campaigner and speaker” – tapped into the concerns of Sri Lankan voters with his anti-corruption and pro-working class campaign.

“He is fighting for a system change. That’s a very high bar, [there are] high expectations from a lot of supporters,” he said.

Experts said Mr Dissanayake’s presidency will need to address two key voids in Sri Lanka’s politics – the loss of faith in the Rajapaksa family, which dominated the leadership for about 15 years, and the gap in centre-left politics left by the Rajapaksas’ shift toward the right.

Mr Dissanayake has previously said he considers Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara one of his heroes. He positioned his National People’s Power coalition, led by JVP, as the best choice to address public demands for reforming Sri Lanka’s political patronage and corruption. He introduced new leaders, emphasised outreach to women affected by the economic crisis, and moderated his party’s previously radical Marxist messaging.

His messaging appears to have resonated with voters. “I’m voting for the Compass this time,” Saman Ratnasiri, 49, an auto-rickshaw driver in Colombo told the New York Times, referring to the election symbol of Mr Dissanayake’s coalition. He said he had never voted for Mr Dissanayake before but wanted to give him a chance. “If we don’t get it right this time also, then I might as well forget about this country.”

In the early 1990s, while at university, Mr Dissanyake became politically active and joined the JVP party – known for its armed uprisings in 1971 and 1987-89. The JVP, which represented the oppressed rural Sinhalese youth, sought to overthrow what it saw as exploitative and feudalistic political and economic systems through a hardline Marxist ideology.

Perhaps the first item in Mr Dissanayake’s in-tray will be what to do with the country’s bailout deal. He has criticised policies of austerity under Mr Wickremesinghe and has said he is committed to ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), vowing to pursue changes that will benefit the country while upholding existing financial agreements. It is unclear how he will marry the two – and the next instalment of the country’s $3bn IMF loan depends on Sri Lanka’s continued compliance with its terms.