Anura Deshnayake is the new president of Sri Lanka

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Photo: Collected

Photo: Collected

Dhaka: Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party leader and National People's Power (NPP) candidate Anura Deshnayake has won Sri Lanka's presidential election. He was declared the winner in the election held on Saturday for the second time in the country's history.

On Sunday (September 22) at 7 pm local time, the country's Election Commission (EC) R.L.A.M. Ratmaze was declared the winner by Anura Deshnayake.

বিজ্ঞাপন

Anura Deshnayake won with 42.3 percent votes. He got a total of 56 lakh 34 thousand 915 votes. His nearest rival Sajith Premadasa got 32.8 percent votes. He got a total votes of 43 lakh 63 thousand 35 votes.

Anura Deshnayake will be sworn in by the President on Monday (September 23). This day has been declared a public holiday.

Who is Anura Deshanaike?

Anura Deshanaik is known to believe in Marxist philosophy and is ideologically close to China. He was born on 24 November 1968 in Thambuththegama, Sri Lanka. Their father was a laborer and mother was a housewife.

Anura Deshanayake studied in a local school. He stood first in his college life till University entrance examination.

Deshanayake joined the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party from his school days. Then he was associated with this party from 1987 to 1989.

Anura Deshanayake first started his studies at the University of Peradeniya. But he could not continue his studies there due to threats to his life. He later obtained a degree in Physical Science from the University of Kelaniya in 1995.

Actively involved in politics, Anura Deshanayake became the leader of JPV.

In 1995, DeshaNayake was elected as the national figure of the Socialist Students Association. Then he was elected as a member of the Central Working Committee of the JVP. In 1998, he started working as a member of the Politburo of the JVP.

The party under the leadership of Somavansa Amarasingh supported Chandrika Kumaratunga's government when it joined mainstream politics. In 2004, Deshnayake was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry in Chandrika Kumaratunga's government.

Later in 2005, after the government signed an accord with the LTTE, Anura Deshanayake also resigned along with other JVP ministers.

In 2014, Anura Deshnayake was elected as the leader of the JVP party. In the 2019 presidential election, she got only 3 percent of the votes.

He then participated in the presidential election on 21st September 2024 (Saturday) on behalf of the National People's Party (NPP) alliance.

Anura Deshanayake strongly criticized Sri Lanka's government's economic reforms on the recommendation of the IMF (International Monitoring Fund).

In 2022, JVP saw another rise in Sri Lankan politics in the wake of the economic collapse.

Initiated in Marxism, the JVP, which called for revolution twice in the 70s and 80s, later moved away from the path of revolution and embarked on the path of parliamentary democracy.

In that way, the JVP and their alliance National People's Power (NPP) played an active role in building a mass coup to overthrow the ruling Rajapakse family in 2022.

At one stage of the popular uprising, then President Gotabaya Rajapakse and his younger brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse resigned and fled the country. After that very soon Deshanayke's party JVP won the trust of the citizens of the country.

JVP agitates for people's welfare programs like eradication of corruption, economic reforms, establishment of social justice.

The question that revolves around Anura Deshnayake:

Many people have questions about how the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka will develop relations with its neighboring country, India. Because many people have questions about it. Because his party JVP is ideologically close to China. But the coalition that won from the NPP, many of those coalitions are not close to China.

A senior leader of the NPP alliance, Professor Anil Jayant, recently told ‘The Week’ that his party wants to maintain good relations with India.

He said, India is definitely our neighbor and also a superpower. Recently, India invited us to an agricultural conference. We visited Delhi and Kerala. Our leader wants to sit with all major powers to stabilize Sri Lanka's economy.

It should be noted that on Saturday (September 21) from 7 am to 4 pm local time, voting was held in the presidential election in the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka.

13 thousand 421 polling stations have been taken in 22 electoral districts in 160 electoral divisions of the country.

Sri Lanka's current population is 2 crore 31 lakh 31 thousand 774 people. Of these, 1 crore 70 lakh voters are believed to have exercised their right to vote on Saturday. More than half of the total voters are women. The total number of women voters is 90 lakh.

Official campaigning for the presidential election ended at midnight on Wednesday (September 18), 48 hours before the polls.

A total of 39 candidates participated in this election. But after the Election Commission announced the final list, 38 candidates participated in the election as one candidate died.

After the independence of Sri Lanka in 1948, Sri Lanka faced financial crisis for the first time in 2022. The situation became so bad that the country was practically bankrupt. The Rajapakse family collapsed in 2022 due to that financial crisis.

The then Prime Minister left the country after being ousted due to public protests    Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother President Gotabaya. Ranil Wickramasinghe took over as the President of the Interim Government after voting by members of Parliament.

Along with Anura, the leader of the National People's Power Party, Nuan Bopage, one of the anti-Rajapaksha mass protesters contested the presidential election for the People's Struggle Alliance party in 2022.

Besides, former army chief and ex-minister Sarath Fonseka and head of Buddhist political organization National Democratic Front (NDF) and ex-minister Vijayadasa Rajapakse have also participated in the election fray.

According to Sri Lanka's constitution, a candidate must receive 51 percent of the vote to win the presidential election. However, if no candidate gets 51 percent of the votes, a second round (run-off) election has to be held between the two candidates who get the most votes.

Source: Daily Mirror