Sri Lanka's left-leaning Dissanayake leads presidential race

Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake was leading Sri Lanka's presidential election with half the votes counted on Sunday, seeming to knock out the incumbent for the chance to lead the heavily indebted nation's fragile economic recovery.

Dissanayake had 40 per cent of the 6 million votes counted, ahead of opposition leader Sajith Premadasa with 33 per cent, as President Ranil Wickremesinghe trailed badly with 17 per cent of Saturday's ballots, according to Sri Lanka's Election Commission.

Final results are expected later on Sunday. If no candidate wins 50 per cent, a second round of counting will determine the winner between the top two, using preferential votes.

This is Sri Lanka's first election since the Indian Ocean nation's economy buckled in 2022 under a severe foreign exchange shortage, leaving it unable to pay for imports of essentials including fuel, medicine and cooking gas. Protests forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and later resign.

"The election result clearly shows the uprising that we witnessed in 2022 is not over," said Pradeep Peiris, a political scientist at University of Colombo.

"People have voted in line with those aspirations to have different political practices and political institutions. AKD" - as Dissanayake is known - "reflects these aspirations and people have rallied around him."

Dissanayake, 55, presented himself as the candidate of change for those reeling under austerity measures linked to a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout, promising to dissolve parliament within 45 days of taking office for a fresh mandate for his policies in general elections.

He has worried investors with a manifesto pledging to slash taxes in the island nation, which could impact IMF fiscal targets, and a $25 billion debt rework. But during the campaign, he took a more conciliatory approach, saying any changes would be undertaken in consultation with the IMF and that he was committed to ensuring repayment of debt.

Premadasa also pledged to renegotiate the contours of the IMF deal.