ANURA Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the Janata Vimukti Perumana (JVP) and the National Peoples’ Power (an alliance of Left and progressive parties) won the presidential elections held on September 21 in Sri Lanka. He polled 57,40,179 votes (42.3 per cent) in these elections, which is a significant increase from the 4,18,553 votes (3.16 per cent) he could obtain in 2019.