Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has dissolved parliament and called for a parliamentary election in an effort to consolidate his mandate following his weekend election victory.

Marxist politician Anura Dissanayake won Sri Lanka’s presidential election over the weekend, dealing a blow to a political old guard that has been widely blamed for the unprecedented economic crisis that hit the South Asian island nation two years ago.

Marxist politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s president on Monday after an election that saw voters reject an old guard accused of leading the country into economic crisis.

Marxist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake has won Sri Lanka’s presidential election as voters rejected the old political guard that has been widely accused of pushing the nation into economic ruin.

Women make up more than half of the voters in Sri Lanka, but in Saturday’s presidential election, not even one will be on the ballot.

Vote counting is underway in Sri Lanka’s presidential election as it seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis and political upheaval.

Sri Lanka will hold its presidential election Sept. 21 in a crucial vote that will decide the future course of the South Asian nation still struggling to recover from its economic collapse in 2022, which provoked mass protests and forced the former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and later resign.

Sri Lanka will hold a presidential election on Sept. 21 that will likely be a test of confidence in President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s efforts to resolve the country’s worst economic crisis.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister and acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe faces two rivals in a parliamentary vote on who will succeed the ousted leader who fled the country last week.

Sri Lanka’s opposition leader, who will seek the presidency next week, is vowing to “listen to the people” who are struggling through the island nation’s worst economic crisis.

COLOMBO Sri Lankas ruling party presidential candidate has conceded defeat to rival Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the Indian Ocean island nations election. Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa says in a statement he will honor the decision of the people in polls Saturday favoring Rajapaksa, the civil war-era defense secretary who served under his brother, ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella described the win as a peoples victory.Rajapaksa reached the threshold for victory of 50% plus one vote by Sunday morning, with most of Premadasas electoral strongholds counted. Sri Lankas Election Commission says that while gunmen had fired at a convoy of buses carrying Muslim voters in the countrys north hours before polling stations opened, the vote was largely peaceful.

Sri Lankan police officers and polling workers prepare to leave for their respective polling stations with materials outside a material distribution center in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. Worries about Islamic extremism will be paramount for many Sri Lankan voters while others hope to block former leaders accused of human rights violations from returning to power in Saturdays presidential election, the countrys first national polls since last Easters deadly suicide attacks. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)COLOMBO Polls have opened in Sri Lankas presidential election after weeks of campaigning that largely focused on national security and religious extremism in the backdrop of the deadly Islamic State-inspired suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former defense official under his brother, ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was widely expected to triumph over ruling party Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa. The Rajapaksa brothers are revered by Sri Lankas Sinhalese Buddhist majority for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 after nearly 30 years of civil war.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019, file photo, Sri Lanka's former defense secretary and presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa attends a rally in Homagama, on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Simply put, fear is driving the election in Sri Lanka, a South Asian island nation of 22 million people off Indias southern tip. The ruling party candidate, Premadasa, is the son of former President Ranasingha Premadasa, who was assassinated by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber in 1993. Following his fathers footsteps, Premadasa built up his reputation through pro-poor projects, but with Sri Lankans demanding justice for the Easter Sunday attacks, he has also emphasized security on the campaign trail. He has promised to appoint Sarath Fonseka, the army commander who led government troops to victory over the Tamil Tigers, as defense minister, in a bid to match Gotabayas defense credentials.