Sri Lanka elections 2024: President AKD’s partly takes commanding early lead
COLOMBO—Sri Lanka President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power (NPP) left rivals far behind in the first 11 results declared in the 2024 general elections, netting over 70% of the votes.
Sri Lanka went to polls in a stabilization crisis coming after the worst currency collapse in the history of the island’s central bank, which ended in a sovereign default.
Ex-President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who oversaw the stabilization crisis, under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) program – the 17th such program triggered by the central bank with rate cuts and liquidity injections to boost growth – lost to Anura Kumar Dissanayake in September.
The stabilization crisis included income tax hikes on middle-class wage earners on top of price rises coming from the central bank.
Dissanayake only polled 42% in the Presidential election.
Earlier in the day President Dissanayake said he expected a strong mandate to govern and carry out his program.
Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya said after voting on Thursday (13) that she expected a majority as many who had not voted for the NPP were now looking at the party favourably.
With about 6% of the results declared, made up of 10 out of 22 postal votes and three other polling divisions, the NPP led with a 74% share.
Sajith Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya was a distant second with around 11% of the vote.
The New Democratic Front made up of ex-ministers who supported the stabilization program and Wickremesinghe’s own United National Party polled around 5.2%.
-economynext.com
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