SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Two years ago, protesters overran and smashed up the home of Sri Lanka's president, forcing him to flee the tropical island country just south of India.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Non-English language spoken).
SIMON: Protesters accused the president of corruption and mismanagement that plunged the country into deep economic trouble. For the first time since then, Sri Lankans went to the polls earlier today to elect a new president. NPR's Diaa Hadid reports an upstart candidate is favored.
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UNIDENTIFIED RALLYGOERS: (Chanting) AKD. AKD.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Folks at a rally in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, chant AKD - the initials of the man who may be the next president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake. More than three dozen men have thrown their hats into this race, but effectively, it's a three-way contest. AKD has risen to the top by promising change, throwing out an old political class seen as corrupt. And people are paying attention, like H.K.K. Vipularatne. He runs a lab at an eye hospital, and he's waiting for his bus on a busy road. He says life's been an uphill trudge since Sri Lanka's economic crisis began.
H K K VIPULARATNE: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: He says, "we're in this mess because our leaders failed." He's referring to Sri Lanka's ousted leader and the man chosen by Parliament to replace him, the current president, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
VIPULARATNE: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: He says, "we're fed up." Jehan Perera is executive director at the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka. He says, Wickremesinghe has steered Sri Lanka out of the worst of its economic crisis. He's stabilized the situation, but...
JEHAN PERERA: Even though the economy has recovered, the fact is, the poverty level has doubled. Prices have doubled and tripled, but salaries have remained the same. People are facing a lot of economic hardships. They want a change.
HADID: So, he says, they're turning to AKD. He's unsettled the race, which, for over seven decades, was a two-way contest.
ALAN KEENAN: And should he win, it would truly be, within Sri Lanka, a historic change.
HADID: Alan Keenan is at the International Crisis Group. Historic change...
KEENAN: Because he comes from a party which twice had violent uprisings against the state.
HADID: He says, those uprisings killed tens of thousands. The party abandoned violence in the early '90s and embraced democracy, but for decades, it barely got votes. It's a communist party in a country not sympathetic to communism. On the party's website, AKD is referred to as Comrade, not ironically. But AKD is leading a more moderate front, not just his party. He's seen as charismatic, a man who empathizes with the people. But to be clear, this is a tight three-way race. The other two leading candidates enjoy strong support - Sajith Premadasa and the incumbent, Wickremesinghe. That's who 38-year-old Vinitha will vote for. She's with her girlfriends at a rally for Wickremesinghe.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) Ranil.
HADID: She says, two years ago, they were lining up for days to get basics like fuel.
VINITHA: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: Vinitha says, "he fixed this mess. He should win." Results are expected by evening. And this island of more than 20 million people will either stay on this path of bruising but successful economic reform, or they'll get a leader who wants to upturn it all.
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai.
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HERMANITO: (Singing in Spanish). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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