JVP leader has positioned himself as opposite to political elites but not all have greeted his win with optimism
Anura Kumara Dissanayake greets the chief justice, Jayantha Jayasuriya, as he takes his oath of office in Colombo on Monday.Anura Kumara Dissanayake greets the chief justice, Jayantha Jayasuriya, as he takes his oath of office in Colombo on Monday.
As the head of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna , traditionally a staunchly Marxist party, Dissanayake had remained out in the political cold for years, winning just 3.8% of the vote in the previous election. He won the presidential election on Sunday as part of the National People’s Power , a broader leftist coalition that has toned down some of the more extreme Marxist ideologies of the JVP and worked to make itself more palatable to the Sri Lankan electorate through its anti-corruption and pro-poor messaging.Dissanayake attends a protest rally in Colombo in February last year. His political star rose after Sri Lanka’s economic disaster.
Dissanayake became leader of the party in early 2014, and not long after made a first apology for the past violence committed by JVP. In 2019, the party led the formation of a larger socialist political coalition, the NPP, along with dozens of other smaller parties, activists and trade unions, in the hope of gaining power.
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