Anura Kumara Dissanayake sworn in as new President of Sri Lanka

Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as Sri Lanka's 10th 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.

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

The elections held on Saturday were crucial for the country as it seeks 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.

Mr Dissanayake's coalition is led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the 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.

Mr 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 Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was overthrown two years later due to the economic crisis.

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 supporting its currency, the rupee, with scarce foreign exchange reserves.