Left-leaning politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake has won Sri Lanka’s presidential election after a historic second round of counting.
No candidate won more than 50% of the total votes in the first round, where Dissanayake got 42.31% while his closest rival, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, got 32.76%.
But Dissanayake, who promised voters good governance and tough anti-corruption measures, emerged as winner after the second count, which tallied voters’ second and third choice candidates.
The election on Saturday was the first to be held since mass protests unseated the country’s leader, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in 2022 after Sri Lanka suffered its worst economic crisis.