For the first time in the history of Sri Lanka’s presidential election, Magatanna reached the second round

Colombo. A second round of counting has been ordered for the first time in history on Sunday after no candidate got more than 50 percent of the votes needed to win the presidential election in Sri Lanka. The latest results showed that Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People’s Power (NPP), a front of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Party, has secured 39.52 percent of the votes. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya is in second place with about 34.28 percent of the votes. Sri Lanka voted on Saturday for the first presidential election after the economic crisis of 2022.

Election Commission Chairman R. M. A. L. Ratnayake said that Dissanayake and Premadasa had secured the maximum votes in the presidential election. However, he said that since neither of them got more than 50 percent of the votes, a second preference count of votes would be conducted.

 

Voters in Sri Lanka elect three candidates in order of preference. If a candidate receives an absolute majority, he or she is declared the winner. If not, a second round of counting begins, in which the decision is made based on the votes of the second and third choices.

 

Ratnayake said the new president would be declared elected after the total votes and preference votes are counted. No election in Sri Lanka has ever reached a second round of counting, as a candidate has always emerged victorious based on first preference votes.