NEW DELHI: National People’s Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as Sri Lanka's 10th president on Monday (Sep 23) during a swearing-in ceremony held at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. Dissanayake took oath to the office before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya which was broadcast live. 

Dissanayake emerged victorious over his closest rival, Sajith Premadasa, by a margin of approximately 10 percentage points, as reported by the official count from the Sri Lanka Election Commission. 

Dissanayake, with his Marxist leanings, has replaced outgoing Ranil Wickremesinghe who could not make it to the second round of vote counting. Dissanayake has been elected in the first polls after the island country went through its worst economic crisis in 2022 when millions took to the streets to hold the government accountable. 

"The dream we have nurtured for centuries is finally coming true. This achievement is not the result of any single person’s work, but the collective effort of hundreds of thousands of you. Your commitment has brought us this far, and for that, I am deeply grateful. This victory belongs to all of us," Dissanayake wrote on X after being elected. 

While Dissanayake took the oath, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena tendered his resignation, having taken over the post in July 2022 when former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and quit in the face of widespread protests. 

Dissanayake, contested as a candidate for the NPP alliance, which includes his Marxist-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna Party (JVP) that has traditionally backed stronger state intervention, lower taxes and more closed market economic policies.

Dissanayake was one of the prominent voices that engineered the anti-government protests in 2022 in the wake of a loan default and massive cost of living crisis. He made rousing speeches during the 2022 protests, known in Sinhalese as 'Aragalaya' or struggle.
Under Dissanayake, the NPP has proposed to break away from the cycle of corruption and mismanagement that has plagued the island nation for years.

As for his economic policies, Dissanayake has vowed not to scrap the country's unpopular four-year $2.9 billion IMF (International Monetary Fund) bailout agreement but said he would renegotiate it.
He has also pledged to reduce income taxes that were doubled by Wickremesinghe and slash sales taxes on food and medicines.