Sri Lanka’s left-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake elected president in first vote since 2022 mass protests
Left-leaning leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has won the presidential election in Sri Lanka.
The election, held on Saturday, was the first since mass protests in 2022 saw Sri Lanka’s then leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa unseated as the country faced its worst economic crisis.
Mr Dissanayake secured 42% of the votes counted, followed by opposition leader Sajith Premadasa with 32% and incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe at 17%, according to the Election Commission.
While official results are yet to be announced, Mr Dissanayake, who leads the National People’s Power coalition, claimed he had won the polls as he said on X: “This victory belongs to all of us.”
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The 55-year-old, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, has come a long way since the presidential elections in 2019, where he won just over 3% of the vote.
He replaces Mr Wickremesinghe, who took over from Mr Rajapaksa when he was forced to resign in 2022 amid widespread protests over the worst economic crisis Sri Lanka had ever seen.
Mr Wickremesinghe’s foreign minister Ali Sabry congratulated Mr Dissanayake on X and said he hopes he will “lead with a commitment to transparency, integrity, and the long-term good of the country”.
Mr Sabry added: “I wish Mr. Dissanayake and his team every success in their efforts to lead Sri Lanka forward.”
Mr Premadasa has not yet conceded defeat.
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Sri Lanka’s crisis resulted largely from excessive borrowing on projects that did not generate revenue.
The economic collapse brought a severe shortage of essentials such as medicine, food, cooking gas and fuel, with people spending days waiting in line to obtain them.
It led to rioting in which protesters took over key buildings including the president’s house, his office and the prime minister’s office, forcing Mr Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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