Dissanayake came out of the political wilderness to secure a double victory in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections last fall, riding a shift away from mainstream political parties following 2022’s mass demonstrations against corruption and soaring prices. The win was a shocking turnaround from 2019, when Dissanayake’s National People’s Power (NPP) party had attracted barely 3 per cent of the vote. But times can change quickly, especially when poverty doubles in two years. Sri Lankans solidified their support for the NPP again in November, after Dissanayake called a snap election in a bid to secure a majority. The gamble paid off, with his party winning 159 seats, up from just three.
Unlike the ruling families that have dominated Sri Lankan politics for decades, Dissanayake has humble beginnings. A member of the Sinhalese majority, the 55-year-old grew up in the peasant village of Thambuththegama in the country’s North Central Province. As a young student in the 1980s he was attracted to the socialist politics of the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP), a Marxist revolutionary party.
