Marxist Dissanayake leads early vote count in Sri Lanka's presidential election

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Marxist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake leads early official results in Sri Lanka's presidential election, according to tallies released on Sunday by the Election Commission, but he is still short of the 50% needed for victory.

The election held Saturday is crucial as the country seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history and the resulting political upheaval.

The election, contested by 38 candidates, was largely a three-way race among Dissanayake, incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa.

Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, was leading with 47% of total votes counted, followed by Premadasa with nearly 28% and Wickremesinghe with 15%.

It was a strong showing for Dissanayake, who won just over 3% of votes in a previous presidential election in 2019, and suggests voters are fatigued with the old political guard, which has been accused of pushing Sri Lanka toward economic instability.

Wickremesinghe's Foreign Minister Ali Sabry congratulated Dissanayake on the social platform X and said he hopes Dissanayake will “lead with a commitment to transparency, integrity, and the long-term good of the country.”

“I wish Mr. Dissanayake and his team every success in their efforts to lead Sri Lanka forward,” Sabry added.

However, neither Wickremesinghe nor Premadasa has conceded defeat.

If no candidate secures at least 50% of the total votes there will not be a separate runoff.

The Sri Lankan election system allows voters to select three candidates on their ballots in the order of their preference. If no candidate secures a majority, the top two will be retained and the ballots of the eliminated candidates will be checked for preferences given to either of the top two candidates, and those votes will be added to their respective tallies.

The candidate with the highest number of votes after that will be declared the winner.

The election was a virtual referendum on Wickremesinghe’s leadership of a fragile recovery, including restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt under an International Monetary Fund bailout program after it defaulted in 2022.

Dissanayake, 55, leads the left-leaning coalition National People’s Power, an umbrella of civil society groups, professionals, Buddhist clergy and students.

No major incidents were reported during the vote but authorities declared a countrywide curfew until midday Sunday as a precaution, police said.

There were 17 million eligible voters and final results are expected Sunday evening.

The government announced Thursday that it passed the final hurdle in debt restructuring by reaching an agreement in principle with private bond holders.

At the time of its default, Sri Lanka’s local and foreign debt totaled $83 billion. The government says it has now restructured more than $17 billion.

Despite a significant improvement in key economic figures, Sri Lankans are struggling with high taxes and living costs.

Both Premadasa and Dissanayake say they will renegotiate the IMF deal to make austerity measures more bearable. Wickremesinghe has warned that any move to alter the basics of the agreement could delay the release of a fourth tranche of nearly $3 billion that is crucial to maintaining stability.

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis resulted largely from excessive borrowing on projects that did not generate revenue. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s insistence on using scarce foreign reserves to prop up the currency, the rupee, contributed to the economy’s free fall.

The economic collapse brought a severe shortage of essentials such as medicine, food, cooking gas and fuel, with people spending days waiting in line to obtain them. It led to rioting in which protesters took over key buildings including the president’s house, his office and the prime minister’s office, forcing then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

Wickremesinghe was elected by a parliamentary vote in July 2022 to cover the remainder of Rajapaksa’s five-year term.

Police commandos stand guard, as a countrywide curfew was imposed then, outside a ballot counting center during the presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Police commandos stand guard outside a ballot counting center during presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024(AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Latest update of the presidential election is displayed on a screen at a counting center, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024.(AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Latest update of the presidential election is displayed on a screen at a counting center, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024.(AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

People watch early election result showing Marxist-leaning lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake in a leading position on a television screen, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardane)

Police commandos stand guard outside a ballot counting center in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardane)

Police commandos stand guard outside a ballot counting center in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardane)

Police commandos stand guard outside a ballot counting center in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardane)

Polling officials carry a sealed ballot box as they return it to a counting center at the end of voting during presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Polling officials carry a sealed ballot box as they return it to a counting center at the end of voting during presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

A police officer sits next to a sealed ballot box as polling officials prepare to return it to a counting center at the end of voting during presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

People wait in a queue to cast their votes at a polling center during the presidential election on the outskirts of Colombo , Sri Lanka Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.(AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

A Sri Lankan family sit in a rickshaw as they leave a polling station after casting their votes in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Elderly women leave a polling station after casting their votes during the presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Voters gather at a polling station to cast their votes during the presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Election officers seal the documents and ballot box at the end of voting during presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

A Sri Lankan man casts his vote at a polling station during presidential elections in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Leader and the presidential candidate of National People's Power Anura Kumara Dissanayake arrives at a polling station to cast his vote in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israeli troops raided the offices of the satellite news network Al Jazeera in the Israeli-occupied West Bank early Sunday, ordering the bureau to shut down amid a widening campaign by Israel targeting the Qatar-funded broadcaster as it covers the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera aired footage of Israeli troops live on its Arabic-language channel ordering the office to be shut for 45 days. It follows an extraordinary order issued in May that saw Israeli police raid Al Jazeera's broadcast position in East Jerusalem, seizing equipment there, preventing its broadcasts in Israel and blocking its websites.

The move marked the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in the country. However, Al Jazeera has continued operating in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, territories that the Palestinians hope to have for their future state.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Al Jazeera denounced the move as it continued broadcasting live from Amman in neighboring Jordan.

Armed Israeli troops entered the office and told a reporter live on air it would be shut down, saying that staff needed to leave immediately. The network later aired what appeared to be Israel troops tearing down a banner on a balcony used by the Al Jazeera office. Al Jazeera said it bore an image of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist shot dead by Israeli forces in May 2022.

“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, in the live footage. “I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment.”

Al-Omari later said that Israeli troops began confiscating documents and equipment in the bureau, as tear gas and gunshots could be seen and heard in the area.

The Palestinians secured limited self-rule in Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank through the 1993 Oslo agreements. While Israel occupies and controls vast areas of the West Bank, Ramallah is under full Palestinian political and security control, making the Israeli raid on the Al Jazeera office that much more surprising.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate denounced the Israeli raid and order.

“This arbitrary military decision is a new aggression against journalistic work and media outlets," it said.

The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the West Bank. Its forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power in 2007, and it has no power there.

Israeli Communication Minister Shlomo Karhi later described the raid as affecting “the mouthpiece of Hamas and Hezbollah,” the Shiite militia in Lebanon that Israel was targeting with strikes Sunday after cross-border fire from the militants.

“We will continue to fight the enemy channels and ensure the safety of our heroic fighters,” Karhi wrote on the social platform X. He did not address what authority Israel cited to order the bureau closed.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “deeply concerned” by the Israeli raid.

“Journalists must be protected and allowed to work freely,” it said.

The network has reported on the Israeli-Hamas war nonstop since the militants’ initial cross-border attack on Oct. 7 and has maintained 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s grinding ground offensive that has killed and wounded members of its staff. It remains unclear whether the Israeli military would target Al Jazeera's operation in Gaza as well.

While including on-the-ground reporting of the war’s casualties, Al Jazeera's Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other regional militant groups.

That has led to Israeli claims by officials up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the network has “harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers.” Those claims have been vehemently denied by Al Jazeera, whose main funder, Qatar, has been key in negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire to end the war.

An order closing Al Jazeera in Israel has been repeatedly renewed in the time since, but it hadn't as of yet ordered the Ramallah offices closed.

The Israeli government has taken action against individual reporters over the decades since its founding in 1948, but broadly allows for a rambunctious media scene that includes foreign bureaus from around the world, even from Arab nations. It also blocked the foreign broadcasts of the Hezbollah-affiliated, Beirut-based Al Mayadeen news channel at the start of the war.

Criticism of Al Jazeera is not new. The U.S. government singled out the broadcaster during America’s occupation of Iraq after its 2003 invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein and for airing videos of the late al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

Al Jazeera has been closed or blocked by other Mideast governments.

Most notably in 2013, Egyptian authorities raided a luxury hotel used by Al Jazeera as an operating base after the military takeover that followed mass protests against President Mohammed Morsi. Three Al Jazeera staff members received 10-year prison sentences, but were released in 2015 following widespread international criticism.

The Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between fighters and civilians.

The closure of Al Jazeera's Ramallah office also comes as tensions continue to rise over a possible expansion of the war to Lebanon, where electronic devices exploded last week in a likely sabotage campaign by Israel targeting the Shiite militia Hezbollah.

The explosions Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people — including two children — and wounded around 3,000 others.

Associated Press writer Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, contributed to this report.

This image made from video provided by Al Jazeera English shows Israeli troops raiding their bureau in Ramallah, West Bank, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Al Jazeera via AP)

This image made from video provided by Al Jazeera English shows Israeli troops raiding their bureau in Ramallah, West Bank, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Al Jazeera via AP)

This image made from video provided by Al Jazeera English shows Israeli troops raiding their bureau in Ramallah, West Bank, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Al Jazeera via AP)

FILE - Al Jazeera broadcast engineer Mohammad Salameh works at the Master Control Room unit inside the network's office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)