Sri Lanka’s President: From Revolutionary to Presidency! How was the life of the new president Lanka Dissanayake? Achi-News

Marxist Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was announced as the next President of Sri Lanka on Sunday. In the election held on Saturday, 55-year-old Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the People’s Liberation Front was elected President of Sri Lanka with a landslide victory of 42.31%. On the same occasion, Dissanayake called for the unity of the country’s Sinhalese, Tamils ​​and Muslims and announced that he would dissolve Parliament within 45 days of taking office.

Outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe – took office in 2022 at the height of the economic downturn and imposed austerity measures on behalf of the IMF. In this election, he fell to third place with only 17.27% of votes. There were 38 candidates contesting the 2024 presidential election, which was largely a triangular contest between Dissanayake, Wickramasinghe and Premadasa.

Who is Anura Kumara Dissanayake?

Elected by the National People’s Power (NPP) and Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP), Dissanayake has emerged as a voice of change by appealing to voters disillusioned with the traditional political system. His party emerged from the JVP, a Marxist group historically focused on social justice and anti-corruption.

Offer Communism from the student village itself

Dissanayake was born on November 24, 1968 in Galewela, a small village in Madhya Pradesh. He moved to Kekirawa at the age of four. He is the first student from his school to qualify for university. In the 1990s, he emerged as a student leader advocating for the idea of ​​communism in the island nation. In 1997, he was appointed the national organizer of the Samajwadi Yuva Sangathan, the youth wing of the JVP. By 1998, he had joined the JVP’s decision-making body, the Politburo.

Dissanayake, who flourished in 2004

Dissanayake flourished in 2004 when he contested the parliamentary elections from Kurunegala district and was re-elected. As part of the coalition government, he became a cabinet minister in the government of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. He resigned from his position after a year.

In January 2014, Dissanayake was promoted to the leadership of JVP, replacing Somavamsa Amarasinghe. He contested and won the 2015 general election from the Colombo district and later served as the Chief Whip of the Opposition in Parliament. He ran for the presidency in 2019 but only got 3% of the vote.

More than 80 thousand people died in the Dissanayake riots

Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s Marxist party fought for political existence in the 1970s and 1980s when more than 80,000 people were killed in uprisings. In the previous parliamentary elections held in August 2020, the party got less than 4 percent of the vote. But he has recorded a huge victory in this year’s presidential election.

What is Dissanayake’s promise?

Corruption and abuse of power marred Sri Lankan politics like never before. The NPP went ahead with the hope that this would end. As such, he was able to gain support from those who wanted “systemic change”.

In his campaign speeches, he emphasized the importance of accountability among politicians, asserting that previous leaders had failed to address the root causes of the economic crisis. The NPP manifesto highlighted the need for significant reforms in Sri Lanka’s education system, public health services and tackling the housing shortage.

Even in the pre-election survey, Dissanayake It was shown that he would win by getting 36 percent of the votes. Premadasa and Wickramasinghe were then said to be in third place.

Voters prefer three measures

In Sri Lanka, voters choose a winner by ranking three candidates in order of preference. If the candidate gets an absolute majority, he is declared the winner. Otherwise, the second round of counting begins to consider the second and third choice votes.

Read the latest news first at News 18 Kannada. Get daily fresh news, live news update on Believer News 18 in Kannada