Anura Dissanayake got the most votes in Sri Lanka, yet why did he not become the President? Know why

Sri Lanka Presidential Election 2024: There has been a big upset in the presidential election held in Sri Lanka. No candidate here got more than 50 percent of the votes required to win, after which for the first time in the history of Sri Lanka, a second round of counting has been ordered. In this election, Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People’s Power (NPP), a front of the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna Party, has secured 39.52 percent votes.

No one got more than 50 percent of the votes

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya came in second with around 34.28. Sri Lanka voted on Saturday (September 21) for the first presidential election after the economic crisis of 2022. A curfew was imposed in Sri Lanka from 10 pm on Saturday to 6 am on Sunday (September 22) as a precaution to prevent any untoward incident after the presidential election.

Sri Lanka’s Election Commission chairman R. M. A. L. Ratnayake said that Dissanayake and Premadasa have secured maximum votes in the presidential election. However, he said that since neither of them has got more than 50 percent of the votes, a second preference counting of votes will be done.

Know how the winner will be decided now?

Voters in Sri Lanka elect three candidates in order of preference. If a candidate receives an absolute majority, he is declared the winner. If not, a second round of counting begins, in which the decision is taken based on the votes of the second and third choices.

Sri Lankan Election Commission Chairman Ratnayake said that the new President will be declared elected after counting the total votes and preference votes. No election in Sri Lanka has ever reached the second round of counting, because a candidate has always emerged victorious on the basis of first preference votes.

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