Sri Lankans elected a leftist political outsider as president, rebuking elites who bankrupted the nation and imposed stringent austerity measures backed by the International Monetary Fund following a financial crisis two years ago.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, popularly known as AKD, won 5.74 million votes after two rounds of counting in the country’s first-ever runoff, according to figures released by the Election Commission of Sri Lanka on Sunday. He defeated opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, who came in second, as well as incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Dissanayake, 55, has vowed to reopen negotiations with the IMF over its $3 billion bailout, which came with spending cuts and tax hikes that proved deeply unpopular with voters. Some members of his National People’s Power coalition also oppose debt-restructuring terms agreed with the nation’s creditors.
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