evidence: National People’s Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as the ninth executive president of Sri Lanka on September 23. In the presidential election held on September 21, the NPP leader polled 5,740,179 votes (5,634,915 votes in the first count and 105,264 more votes in the second count). He secured close to 43 percent of the valid vote. [...] Over the past decade, Dissanayake has demonstrated a pragmatic and adaptive political style. When he assumed leadership of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the main party in the NPP coalition, it had a reputation for radical politics. Since the 1970s, the JVP has undergone significant transformations, evolving from an anti-imperialist, socialist party that sought to overthrow capitalism to a Sinhala-nationalist platform in the 1980s, opposing Tamil self-rule and India’s involvement in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict. The party was banned for trumped up charges of being involved in the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom but re-entered mainstream politics in 1994. Under Dissanayake’s leadership, the JVP has broadened its appeal, reaching out to the middle class and diaspora communities. Although critics have accused it of abandoning its socialist roots, the NPP’s focus on grassroots mobilization gained momentum, particularly during the 2022 protests that led to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation. Despite lackluster performances in the 2019 presidential and 2020 parliamentary elections, where it was mocked as the "3 percent party," the NPP rebranded itself as a voice for the people, capitalizing on public frustration with the political establishment and advocating for systemic change.