Anura Dissanayake Sworn In As New Sri Lanka President

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, was sworn in as Sri Lanka new president succeeding Ranil Wickremesinghe.

On September 23, the leader of the Marxist-leaning National People’s Power coalition, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, won the 2024 election with over 5.7 million votes defeating opposition leader Sajith Premadasa.

One of Dissanayake major agenda is to solve economic crisis which has been hitting the country over the last two years including excessive borrowing and mismanagement of funds.

During his campaigns, he positioned himself as a reformer promising to address corruption, alleviate economic hardships, and challenges that the previous regime failed to tackle. He also addressed on working-class issues and promised for more equitable and fair governance with the plan of breaking the political elite group which has been majorly blamed for the country’s economic crisis.

Austerity Measures

To solve Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, Dissanayake promised to put in place austerity measures and to re-evaluate the IMF-backed economic policies.

He also promised reduce hardships caused by the economic collapse, which has led to shortages of essentials like food, fuel, and poor health care service.

He said his government will re-negotiate parts of the IMF agreement to ease financial burdens on the citizen to promote stability and fight corruption through fairness and equity.

“We don’t believe that a government, a single party, or an individual would be able to resolve this deep crisis,” Dissanayake stated.

While emphasizing on the challenges facing Sri Lanka, he stated that only unity can lead to the achievements of their goals pledging to work with all Sri Lankans to address the country’s issues.