LIVE: Anura Kumara Dissanayake Swearing in as New President of SL | Sri Lanka Election Results| N18G 

Sri Lanka Election Results LIVE: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to be Sworn in as Sri Lanka’s 9th Executive President Today | CNBC TV18
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka swears in Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake as new president.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the National People's Power, is set to be sworn in as the 9th Executive President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka this morning at the Presidential Secretariat.
In the presidential election Dissanayake secured a total of 5,634,915 votes, which accounts for 42.28% of the total votes cast. This is in the first count.
Leftist candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been declared president-elect after Saturday’s presidential election.
The election commission made the announcement after a second vote count, the first in the Sri Lanka’s history.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa finished second. Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe came third and was eliminated after the first round.
Sri Lanka is set to get its new president after a historic turn of events which led to a second round of counting of votes as no candidates were able to secure the required 50% majority in the presidential election.
As the counting progressed, Anura Kumara Dissanayake is leading with more than 5.6 million votes securing 43.93 % of the votes while Sajith Premadasa is following closely with 4.3 million votes, securing 33. 98% of the votes.
According to experts, Dissanayake, leader of the Marxist JVP's broader front, the National People's Power (NPP) is likely to secure more than 7 million votes, comfortably crossing the 50% mark.
Experts had earlier suggested that the second count may favour Premadasa, as those who voted for incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe are likely to have selected him as their second choice.
Saturday's election is significant for Sri Lanka as the first election since mass protests led to the ousting of former leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022, following the country’s worst economic crisis.
After the first round of counting of votes, Election Commission Chairman RMAL Rathnayake said that Marxist leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa have secured maximum votes in the presidential election.
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