Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a staunch Marxist legislator who has been crusading against government corruption in Sri Lanka, is set to become the 10th President of the island nation after early trends of presidential polls showed him leading with over 52 per cent of vote share. The 2024 elections, the first since the country faced the worst economic meltdown since independence, witnessed a bumper voting with over 75 per cent of eligible voters coming out to elect a new leader.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the United National Party, who took over the reins after Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa fled the country, leaving behind a nation battling the crippled economy, is trailing behind at the third position with only a meagre 16 per cent vote share.
According to early trends on Sunday morning, Sajith Premadasa, a pro-India leader, also lagged in second place with 23 per cent votes.
Who Is Anura Kumara Dissanayake
Popularly known as AKD, Dissanayake is a long-time Marxist-Leninist leader associated with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party of Sri Lanka. He emerged as a strong leader during the precarious economic slump in 2022, with his emphasis on pro-poor policies and stirring anti-corruption speeches.
In 2019, National People's Power, a 28-party socialist and social democratic political alliance chose Dissanayake as its leader for the presidential post.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake Early Life, Education
Anura Dissanayake was born on 24 November 1968 in Thambuthegama village in the Anuradhapura District, North Central Province, Sri Lanka. He started participating in the activities of JVP as early as his student life and later joined the party as a full-time member in 1987. Son to a labourer, Anura entered the Lankan parliament in 2000 as a legislator for the first time.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake On India
The communist leader is feared to side with China due to the nature of his Marxist-Leninist policies. In a report, The Week claimed that Anura's party JVP is close to China and this has 'fueled suspicions about China funding his campaigns since 2021'.
However, a senior NPP alliance leader Professor Anil Jayantha said that his alliance believe in working with India as it is a superpower.
"Our party or our leader wants to engage with India. India is certainly our neighbour and a superpower. Recently, we were invited by India for an agricultural summit. We visited Delhi and Kerala. Our leader wants to deal with all the major powers to stabilise the Sri Lankan economy,” he said as quoted by The Week.