Anura Kumara Dissanayake (born 24 November 1968), commonly referred to by his initials AKD, is a Sri Lankan politician who has been the 10th president of Sri Lanka since 2024. Dissanayake is the first Sri Lankan president to be elected in a second round of vote counting, and the first not to be a member of the traditional political parties of Sri Lanka. He was born in the village of Galewela in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, Dissanayake moved with his family to the village of Thambuththegama in the North Central Province in 1972. While he was a student at the University of Peradeniya, he joined the Socialist Students Union, the student wing of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which now known as the National People's Power (NPP) after Dissanayake had discovered Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels from The Communist Manifesto as well as Chairman Mao's philosophy. Dissanayake was elected as President of Sri Lanka on 22 September 2024, becoming the first president to be elected from a third party. Dissanayake has been characterised in media as a Marxist leader during his 2024 presidential campaign in Sri Lanka.