COLOMBO, Sept 24, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Sri Lanka's new leftist president is
expected to call a snap parliamentary election ahead of his plans to
renegotiate the bankrupt island nation's unpopular International Monetary
Fund bailout programme.

Self-avowed Marxist Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the People's Liberation Front
(JVP) was sworn into office on Monday after a landslide win in weekend
presidential polls.

His once-marginal party currently has just three lawmakers in Sri Lanka's
225-member parliament.

But support for Dissanayake surged after a 2022 economic meltdown that
immiserated millions of ordinary Sri Lankans and a contentious International
Monetary Fund rescue package.

Asked by reporters late Monday in the central city of Kandy if he would keep
a campaign pledge to dissolve parliament as soon as he took charge, he
replied: "Wait for two days."

Lawmaker Harini Amarasuriya, an ally of Dissanayake's in parliament, told
reporters in Colombo the same night that parliament would be dissolved
"within a day".

Sri Lanka's crisis proved an opportunity for Dissanayake, who saw his
popularity rise after pledging to change the island's "corrupt" political
culture.

He beat 38 other candidates to win Saturday's presidential vote, taking more
than 1.2 million more votes than his nearest rival.

His predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had imposed steep tax hikes and
other unpopular austerity measures under the terms of the $2.9 billion IMF
bailout secured last year, came a distant third.

The IMF offered its congratulations to Dissanayake on Monday, saying it was
ready to discuss the future of the rescue plan.

"We look forward to working together with President Dissanayake... towards
building on the hard-won gains that have helped put Sri Lanka on a path to
economic recovery," a spokesman from the lender of last resort said.

- 'Not a magician' -

A senior aide of the new president told AFP on the weekend that Dissayanake's
party would not repudiate the IMF deal.

"Our plan is to engage with the IMF and introduce certain amendments," Bimal
Ratnayake said.

"We will not tear up the IMF programme. It is a binding document, but there
is a provision to renegotiate."

In his first address after his inauguration, Dissayanake sought to lower
expectations of a quick fix for the country's economic woes.

"I am not a conjuror, I am not a magician, I am a common citizen," he said.

"I have strengths and limitations, things I know and things I don't... my
responsibility is to be part of a collective effort to end this crisis."