Sri Lanka presidential election goes to historic second count

Colombo: In a historic first, Sri Lanka’s presidential election on Sunday went into a second round of counting after no candidate secured over 50 per cent vote needed to be declared the winner. The latest results showed Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party’s broader front National People’s Power (NPP) had won 39.52 per cent of the votes counted.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya is in second place with nearly 34.28 per cent of the total vote.

Sri Lankans voted on Saturday to elect a new president in the first election since the economic meltdown in 2022.

Election Commission Chairman R M A L Rathnayake said that Dissanayake and Premadasa have secured maximum votes in the 2024 presidential election.

However, he said that as neither has secured more than 50 per cent vote, the second preference vote will be counted and added to these two candidates.

Voters in Sri Lanka elect a single winner by ranking up to three candidates in order of preference. If a candidate receives an absolute majority, they will be declared the winner. If not, a second round of counting will commence, with second and third-choice votes then taken into account. Rathnayake said the new president will be declared elected after the cumulative votes and preference votes are counted. He also said that the remaining candidates will not be considered for the preference vote.

Dissanayake, the leader of the Marxist JVP’s broader front National People’s Power (NPP), is leading in the cumulative votes.

The National People’s Power (NPP) leader was earlier heading for a clear win but his cumulative votes dropped when most of the votes were counted.

No election in Sri Lanka has ever progressed to the second round of counting, as single candidates have always emerged as clear winners based on first-preference votes.