Colombo. The NPP alliance led by leftist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has won the presidential election in Sri Lanka. It is being said that he can take oath as the President on Monday. He will be the 10th President of the country and will replace the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Elections were held in Sri Lanka on 21 September and the counting of votes started at 6 pm on the same day. Anura Dissanayake has won the election in a triangular contest.
However, this is the first time in Sri Lanka’s electoral history that no candidate got 50 percent of the votes. After this, a second round of counting was conducted. The Election Commission said that Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa got the most votes in the presidential election. After this, a final contest took place between these two candidates.
According to Sri Lanka’s website ‘Daily Mirror’, in the first round, Anura Disanayake got about 42.3 percent votes, Sajith Premadasa got 32.8 percent and Ranil Wickremesinghe got 17.3 percent votes. Anura Kumara Disanayake is the leader of the leftist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, JVP. He contested the presidential election on behalf of the National People’s Power, NPP alliance. This alliance got only three percent votes in the last election.
Dissanayake’s party JVP is known for its opposition to India. Anura started a new controversy by making a statement against the Indian company Adani before the elections. The JVP leader had promised that after winning the presidential election, he would cancel the Adani Group’s wind power project in Sri Lanka. Anura had said that the Adani project is a threat to Sri Lanka’s energy sovereignty. It is worth noting that the Adani Group has made a deal with the Sri Lankan government this year to develop a wind power station.