Soon after being elected president, Dissanayake said Sri Lanka didn’t have any geopolitical concerns, and he was committed to whatever was in Sri Lanka’s best interests.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a member of parliament since 2000, comes from a working-class family. He was the first from his village to attend university, joining JVP in 1987 as a student.
Though Anura Kumara Dissanayake's lead has decreased since early morning, he's still expected to come out on top. Everyone except Dissanayake & Premadasa have been eliminated from running.
Tamils are Sri Lanka's largest minority group & usually vote as one block, but this time their vote is fractured. Plus, the 3 front-runners need significant Tamil support to reach majority.
Voters in Sri Lanka have to rank up to 3 candidates in order of preference. Candidate with 50% votes is declared winner; if nobody gets clear majority, race will boil down to top two candidates.
The elections, with 39 candidates in fray, will be watched by India, China & West. Its location makes it key player in India’s Neighbourhood First policy & broader vision for Indian Ocean.
Elections in September are seen as 3-way contest between Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa & Anura Dissanayake, but entry of Mahinda Rajapaksa's son could throw spanner in works.
A veteran politician, Gunawardena, 73, earlier served as the foreign minister & education minister. He was appointed as Home Minister in April by then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
After mass protests over surging prices and shortages of food & fuel, Rajapaksa announced he will resign on 13 July, PM Wickremesinghe has announced intent to resign too.
Research paper, however, finds lowest indebtedness level among Muslims at 12.3% & highest among Hindus at 14.9%. Overall national financial inclusion level at 87.2%, indebtedness at 14.7%.
Fresh details of operation conducted by IAF, Army have come out in gazette notification giving citations of those who were awarded Vir Chakra for their bravery.
On 21 Oct, a buzz went up that the govt had released full list of gallantry award recipients along with Op Sindoor citations. I put an AI caddy on the job. It took me into a never-ending rabbit hole.
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