Sri Lankans elect Marxist president

On September 22, Marxist candidate Aruna Kumara Dissanayake of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) alliance won the Sri Lankan presidential election. 

Traditional parties such as the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) dominate the Sri Lankan Parliament, currently holding 145 of the 225 seats. The JVP only has three seats in Parliament.

Dissanayake’s victory is significant, as he is the first Marxist to be elected president in Sri Lanka’s history. He has strong support from young voters in particular. His success in the election reflects the growing popularity of leftist ideas in Sri Lanka. The JVP led two armed revolts against the government in the 1970s and 1980s. 

This electoral victory for the left comes after Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt and went into bankruptcy. Current social and economic unrest in Sri Lanka has been motivated by the rapid decline of economic possibilities for the population, which faces shortages of essential goods, including food, fuel and medicines. 

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party took Sri Lanka to the International Monetary Fund in 2023 to secure a $2.9 billion bailout, which has further trapped the country in a cycle of high-interest loans with corporate creditors in the imperialist West. Wickremesinghe continued to arm the government against the Tamil people’s resistance in the North and East of Sri Lanka. 

Dissanayake campaigned on transitioning Sri Lanka away from the IMF and resolving ethnic disputes in the country, specifically the ongoing genocide of the Tamil people. 

The election results represent the demands of the people but do not by themselves change the class character of the state. The capitalist class still controls the state, property and means of production in Sri Lanka, and the superrich maintain their ties to the military, courts, corporate media and police. 

The global working class must be in solidarity with Sri Lanka’s efforts to develop independently of world imperialism and to advance towards socialism.