Maithiripala Sirisena has been declared elected as the 7th President of Sri Lanka. Maithripala has defeated incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa by 4 and a half lakh votes. He has secured 51.28 per cent of votes cast.
The swearing in of the new President will take place at 6 in the evening.

Earlier in the morning, Mahinda Rajapaksa conceded defeat after trends showed that Maithripala was securing support from all parts of the country.

Meeting the leader of opposition, Mr Rajapaksa assured the opposition of smooth transfer of power to the new leader.

President Elect Maithripala has asked his supporters to keep calm and celebrate the victory. Ranil Wickremasinghe said that there will be no revenge by the new government as the people have voted for a change in political culture of the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first world leader to call up Maithripala and congratulate him on his historic victory.

This is the first time that an incumbent President has been defeated and ousted at the polls in Sri Lanka. Mahinda Rajapaksa was in power for exactly a decade and saw the end of LTTE militancy in 2009. He was responsible for huge development projects since then, but failed to address the political aspirations of the minority Tamil community, protect the Muslims from Buddhist hardliners or secure a better economic deal for the poor.

Maithripala was Rajapaksa’s Health Minister till he crossed over to the opposition a day after elections were announced in November. He heads a rainbow coalition of several parties and has promised constitutional, electoral and administrative reforms within a hundred days of coming to power. He has also promised to abolish Executive Presidency and hand over political power to the Prime Minister and the Parliament.