Sri Lanka's new President Dissanayake pledges to do everything to clean public life

Colombo: Sri Lanka's new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Monday vowed to preserve democracy and do everything to clean public life.

The remarks by Dissanayake, 56, came as he was sworn in as Sri Lanka's ninth president on Monday by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya at the Presidential Secretariat.

In his inaugural address to the nation, Dissanayake thanked his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe for respecting the people’s mandate and facilitating a peaceful transfer of power.

“I assure you that I will do my best to preserve democracy and work towards restoring the honour of politicians as people have misgivings about their conduct," Dissanayake said in an address after taking the oath.

Dissanayake stressed Sri Lanka cannot remain in isolation and needed international cooperation.

He said he is not a magician, but his objective is to be part of a collective responsibility to elevate the economic crisis-stricken country.

“I’m not a magician. I’m an ordinary citizen born in this country. I have abilities and inabilities. I have things I know and don’t know. My first task is to make use of people’s talents and know-how and make better decisions to lead this country,” he said.

“I want to be a contributor to that collective responsibility,” he added.

Dissanayake, clad in a white long-sleeved tunic and black trousers, received blessings from the Buddhist clergy present after the ceremony.

Dissanayake, the leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party's broader front National People’s Power (NPP), defeated his closest rival Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) in Saturday's election.

The election was the first to be held since mass protests unseated Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 after the country suffered an economic crisis.

His swearing-in comes hours after Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena resigned from his post as part of a power transition in the country following the presidential election.

The country's Election Commission had to order an unprecedented second round of counting on Sunday after no candidate secured over 50 per cent votes needed to be declared the winner of Saturday's presidential election.

Dissanayake won the election obtaining 5.74 million votes, with 105,264 preferences. Premadasa got 4.53 million votes with 167,867 preferences.

Dissanayake's anti-corruption message and his promise of a change in political culture resonated strongly with young voters who had been demanding system change since the economic crisis.

The accession of Dissanayake, who is popularly known as AKD, to the top post is a remarkable turnaround for his half-century-old party JVP, which had long remained on the margins. He is Sri Lanka’s first-ever Marxist party leader to become head of state.

The NPP's popularity has risen sharply since 2022 after securing only around three per cent of the vote in the last presidential election in 2019.

Dissanayake, who hails from rural Thambuttegama in the North Central province, is a science graduate from the Colombo suburban Kelaniya University.

He joined the JVP, the mother party of the NPP, in 1987 at the height of their anti-Indian rebellion.

In the 2000 parliamentary election, he entered Parliament from the JVP. He has been an opposition livewire since 2001.

Dissanayake re-entered Parliament from the northwestern district of Kurunegala after the 2004 election in an alliance with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He was appointed the minister of agriculture.

Dissanayake became the parliamentary group leader of the JVP in 2008.

He was again elected to Parliament in the 2010 parliamentary election from the Colombo district and became his party's chief in 2014.

Having won again from Colombo in 2015, he became the chief opposition whip, a post he held till 2019.

In 2019, the JVP rebranded itself as the NPP, which embraced sections of Sri Lankan society that had never been enamoured towards the JVP given its violent past.

Dissanayake faces the immediate challenge of determining the future of economic reforms in the cash-strapped country.

Historically, the NPP has opposed International Monetary Fund programmes, but its recent endorsement of the current programme, although with a renegotiation of its terms, marks a significant shift.