Watch: Who is Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the new President of Sri Lanka?

Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been declared the winner of the sri Lankan presidential polls on Sunday. Here’s all you need to know about him

The results of the Sri Lankan elections were declared on Sunday (September 22, 2024) and Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been declared the winner. He won the presidency with 42.31% of the vote, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa came in second and incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe came third, the country’s Election Commission said on its website.  He is due to be sworn in on September 23. 

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, or AKD, is the leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP of People’s Liberation Front), a party of Marxist-Leninist origins. He comes from a small farming household that was not politically active. His father was an office aide in the government Survey Department and his mother was a homemaker. 

AKD secured a seat in 2000 and served as Minister of Agriculture in President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike’s government between 2004 and 2005. He became the leader of the party in 2014.  He is known as a prolific speaker and a clear-headed decision maker. 

To many Sri Lankans, the NPP became their vehicle of hope and AKD is their symbol of change. Now, it falls on the 55-year-old Dissanayake to rise to the challenge and fulfill those hopes. 

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Report: Meera Srinivasan

Production: V Nivedita