The leader of the opposition alliance “National People’s Power”, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has won the presidential elections in Sri Lanka, Adaderana announced this on Sunday, September 22, referring to the country’s electoral commission.
“The commission said on its website that Dissanayake, 55, won the presidential election with 42.31% of the vote, displacing opposition leader Sajith Premadasa into second place and the incumbent. Ranila Wickremesinghe – the third”, – says the publication.
Dissanayake had already contested the 2019 presidential election, but came third, with 3% of the vote.
Sri Lanka’s presidential elections were held on 21 September. More than 5.7 million voters cast their ballots for Dissanayake.
At the end of 2021, the economic crisis in Sri Lanka worsened due to restrictions on tourism amid the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the country began to experience a shortage of foreign exchange reserves, so the authorities had to reduce imports and start saving resources.
On 12 April 2022, Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance declared a default on its external obligations.
Subsequently, on July 15, 2022, the president Gotabaya Rajapaksa Rajapaksa officially resigned from office. Sri Lanka’s parliament elected Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new head of state on July 20. 134 MPs voted for him. Rajapaksa announced his intention to resign as president after protests in Sri Lanka due to the economic crisis, Izvestia recalls.
