According to the Sri Lankan Constitution, the presidential election should be held in September/October 2024. Some people believed, and some still believe the election will not occur. The skepticism is not without reason because President Ranil Wickramasinghe’s party, the United National Party, has a history of finding excuses for not conducting polls. President Jayewardene’s 1982 referendum canceled the parliamentary election. The present government of Wickremesinghe indefinitely deferred the local authority elections scheduled for 2023.

When the government declared that the state coffer has no funds for local government elections, the pro-democracy civil society had no answers. The postponement of the local government elections also exposed the aragalaya. Proponents of the 2022 aragalaya argue that it was a democracy movement. If that was the case, aragalaya should have resurfaced when the local elections were postponed. In reality, the aragalaya was an economic movement that wanted a steady supply of essential commodities.

In February 2024, President Wickremesinghe announced that the presidential election would be conducted within the “mandated period.” Media reports also suggested that he had instructed the cabinet and his party members to prepare for the presidential election. Therefore, at this point in time, we have to assume that the country will go for the presidential election at the end of this year.

It is against this backdrop that many think Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People’s Power (NPP) will win the election. This implies that Dissanayake will be Sri Lanka’s next president. The NPP is defined as a new political alliance headed by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). It could also be called a front of the JVP, which is known for using front organizations depending on the realities and needs. The Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya is a good example. Therefore, the tags NPP and JVP can be interchangeably used.

The notion that Dissanayake will win the upcoming presidential election stems from three factors. One, some of the opinion polls conducted in Sri Lanka predict a........

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