Marxist Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as President of Sri Lanka

COLOMBIA – Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as Sri Lanka's president on Monday after voters rejected an old guard accused of leading the country into economic crisis.

Dissanayake, 55, who ran as chairman of the Marxist-leaning National People's Power coalition, defeated opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and 36 other candidates in Saturday's election.

Dissanayake received 5,740,179 votes, followed by Premadasa with 4,530,902.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Dissanayake on his victory on Monday and said he looked forward to working together “to continue our traditional friendship together.”

The USA and India had previously congratulated Dissanayake.

In a short speech after taking office, the new president promised to work with others to overcome the country's challenges.

“We are aware that we are facing a country facing great challenges,” said Dissanayake. “We do not believe that any one government, any one party or any one individual will be able to solve this deep crisis.”

Shortly before the swearing-in, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena resigned, paving the way for the new president to appoint a prime minister and cabinet.

The election came at a time when the country is trying to recover from its worst economic crisis and the resulting political upheaval.

He is the ninth holder of the powerful office of Executive President of Sri Lanka, which was created in 1978 when a new constitution expanded the office's powers.

Dissanayake's coalition is led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front), a Marxist party that led two unsuccessful armed insurgencies in the 1970s and 1980s in an attempt to seize power through a socialist revolution. After its defeat, the JVP entered democratic politics in 1994 and has been largely in opposition since then. However, it has supported several previous presidents and was briefly part of the government.

The NPP also includes groups representing academics, civil society movements, artists, lawyers and students.

Dissanayake was first elected to Parliament in 2000 and briefly served as Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation under then President Chandrika Kumaratunga. He ran for president for the first time in 2019 and lost to Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Dissanayake's first major challenge will be to fulfil his election promise to ease the crushing austerity measures imposed by his predecessor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, as part of a bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

Wickremesinghe warned that any change in the fundamentals of the agreement could delay the release of a fourth tranche of nearly $3 billion.

This economic crisis was due to excessive borrowing to finance non-revenue-generating projects, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the government's insistence on propping up its currency, the rupee, with scarce foreign exchange reserves.

This led to shortages of essential goods such as food, medicine, cooking gas and fuel in 2022 and sparked massive protests that forced then-President Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

Then Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was elected by Parliament to serve the remainder of Rajapaksa's term.