For the first time in Sri Lanka’s history, the presidential election has entered a second round of counting due to no candidate achieving the required 50% plus one vote to secure victory. The election commission will now assess voters’ second and third preferences, as citizens were asked to rank up to three candidates during the election.
In the initial round, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a leftist politician, was in the lead, followed by opposition leader Sajith Premadasa. However, complete results from the first round have not yet been made public. The election commission announced that all candidates except for Dissanayake and Premadasa have been eliminated, with ballots from the eliminated candidates being reviewed for any secondary or third preference votes directed towards the two frontrunners.
This election follows the mass protests that ousted former leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 amid Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis. Historically, all eight previous presidential elections since 1982 have seen winners declared in the first counting round, making this contest one of the closest in the nation’s history.
Seventeen million Sri Lankans were eligible to vote, and officials reported the election as the most peaceful in history, despite a curfew being imposed for public safety, which was lifted the following day. Dissanayake’s campaign focused on anti-corruption and governance reform, appealing to voters seeking systemic change since the economic turmoil. Early results showed him leading, with high-profile figures congratulating him, but recent numbers indicate he is losing ground to Premadasa. Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe secured 17% of the vote, placing third in the polling.