President Zardari felicitates Sri Lankan President-elect on his victory

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has extended heartfelt felicitations on the electoral victory of Sri Lankan President-elect, Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

In his congratulatory message, President Zardari stated that Pakistan greatly valued its ties with the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka as both countries enjoyed excellent cooperation in various areas of mutual interest.

President Zardari hoped that bilateral relations between the two countries would further strengthen under his leadership. The President also wished good health and continued prosperity for the leadership and people of Sri Lanka.

A previously fringe Marxist politician has become Sri Lanka’s next leader after a presidential vote coloured by discontent over the island nation’s response to an unprecedented financial crisis.

In the polls, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka got 52 per cent to over a million votes, well above his nearest rivals. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was in second, with 23.3 per cent of the vote.

Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe — who took office at the peak of the 2022 economic collapse and imposed tough austerity policies per the terms of an IMF bailout — was trailing at a distant third with around 16 per cent of the vote.

“Though I heavily campaigned for President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the people of Sri Lanka have made their decision, and I fully respect their mandate for Anura Kumara Dissanayaka,” foreign minister Ali Sabry said on social media.

Around 76 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 17.1 million eligible voters cast ballots in Saturday’s poll. Anura Kumara Dissanayaka’s once-marginal Marxist party led two failed uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead.

It won less than four per cent of the vote during the most recent parliamentary elections in 2020. But Sri Lanka’s crisis has proven an opportunity for Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, 55, who has seen a surge of support based on his pledge to change the island’s “corrupt” political culture.

“Our country needs a new political culture,” he said after casting his ballot on Saturday.