Nationwide Individuals’s Energy chief and presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake arrives at a polling station to solid his vote in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. | Picture credit score: AP
Nationwide Individuals’s Energy (NPP) chief Anura Kumara Dissanayake seems set to turn into Sri Lanka’s ninth government president on Sunday (September 22, 2024) with a powerful exhibiting within the presidential election, based on postal voting outcomes from seven constituencies.
Additionally Learn: Sri Lankan Presidential Election Stay Updates
Voting befell on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. native time at greater than 13,400 polling stations in 22 electoral districts.
The 56-year-old chief had taken an unassailable lead over his rivals, the principle opposition chief, Sajith Premadasa, 57, and the present president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75.
In accordance with the outcomes declared within the postal vote in seven of the 22 electoral districts, the NPP chief has obtained 56% of the votes, whereas his rivals comply with with 19% every.
Based mostly on the pattern proven within the postal voting outcomes, analysts say Dissanayake is prone to win the presidency with greater than 50% of the votes.
This comes after predictions {that a} second recount of preferential votes could also be mandatory to find out the winner among the many three favourites.
The elections, billed as a three-way election between Wickremesinghe, Dissanayake and Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), look set to be a landslide victory for Dissanayake, who would turn into Sri Lanka’s first Marxist head of state.
Printed – September 22, 2024 05:26 am IST
