Grapevine

Marxist-leaning Dissanayake wins Sri Lanka’s election: What’s next?

From an IMF deal he wants to renegotiate to parliamentary elections, president-elect faces key challenges.

Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake has taken office as Sri Lanka’s president shortly after winning the country’s election.

Dissanayake, who was sworn in on Monday after winning Saturday’s polls, has inherited the top job in a nation battered by austerity measures imposed as a part of a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

These austerity measures — hikes in income taxes and electricity prices — were introduced under outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Wickremesinghe took over as leader after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted in 2022 following the country’s economic collapse and amid mass public protests that Dissanayake and his political party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), were part of.