Anura Kumara Dissanayake leads early Sri Lanka vote count
Joel Guinto & Ayeshea Perera
BBC News: 09/22/2024 .
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a leftist politician, is leading Sri Lanka's presidential election, but is still not close to the 50% plus one vote needed to be declared the winner.
The latest results on Sunday morning showed Dissanayake had won 39% of the votes counted. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa is in second place with nearly 34% of the total vote.
The election on Saturday is the first to be held since mass protests unseated the country's leader, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in 2022 after the country suffered its worst economic crisis.
If a candidate fails to secure 51% of the votes in the first round of counting, a second count will be held to tally voters' second and third choice for president.
Voters are asked to mark up to three candidates in order of preference at the polls - so there is no additional voting.
All of Sri Lanka's eight presidential elections since 1982 have seen the winner emerge during the first round of counting. This poll has been described as one of the closest in the country's history - and could be the first to go into a second round of voting.
Seventeen million Sri Lankans were eligible to vote on Saturday and the country's elections commission said it was the most peaceful in the country's history.
Still, police announced a curfew late Saturday night citing "public safety. It was lifted at noon local time (06:30 GMT).
Dissanayake promised voters tough anti-corruption measures and good governance - messages that resonated strongly with voters who have been clamouring for systematic change since the crisis.
Early results showed him rocketing to the lead, prompting several high profile figures - including the country's foreign minister - to congratulate him.
But the latest numbers have shown him losing some ground to Premadasa.
Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe has won 17% of the vote thus far, putting him in third place in the polling.