Sri Lanka's Presidential Election Heads to Unprecedented Second Round

Sri Lanka's 2024 presidential election went into a second round of counting after no candidate secured over 50% of the vote. Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa are leading, while incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe was eliminated. The final results depend on second and third-preference votes.

In a historic first, Sri Lanka's presidential election on Sunday went into a second round of counting after no candidate secured over 50 percent of the vote needed to be declared the winner.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party's broader front National People’s Power (NPP) led the first round with 5.63 million votes (42.31%), followed by Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) with 4.36 million votes (32.8%).

Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe managed only 2.29 million votes (17.27%) and was eliminated.

Election Commission Chairman R M A L Rathnayake confirmed that neither Dissanayake nor Premadasa secured more than 50% of the votes, necessitating a count of second-preference votes to determine the winner.

Sri Lankans voted on Saturday to elect a new president for the first time since the economic crisis of 2022. The presidential election operates on a preferential voting system, where voters rank up to three candidates.

The new president will be declared after cumulative and preference votes are recounted. This marks the first time in Sri Lankan history that an election has progressed to a second round of counting.