Marxist-leaning politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake leads early official results in Sri Lanka’s presidential election, according to tallies released on Sunday by the Election Commission.

However, he is still short of the 50% needed for victory.

The election held on 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 Mr Dissanayake, incumbent liberal president Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa.

Mr Dissanayake was leading with 47% of total votes counted, followed by Mr Premadasa with nearly 28% and Mr Wickremesinghe with 15%.

Mr Wickremesinghe’s foreign minister Ali Sabry congratulated Mr Dissanayake on the social platform X and said he hopes Mr 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,” Mr Sabry added.

However, neither Mr Wickremesinghe nor Mr 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 Mr Wickremesinghe’s leadership of a fragile recovery, including restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme after it defaulted in 2022.

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

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

The government announced on 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 totalled 83 billion dollars (£62.3 billion).

The government says it has now restructured more than 17 billion dollars (£12.8 billion).

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

Both Mr Premadasa and Mr Dissanayake say they will renegotiate the IMF deal to make austerity measures more bearable.

Mr 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 dollars (£2.2 billion) that is crucial to maintaining stability.