By Uditha Jayasinghe and Sudipto Ganguly COLOMBO (Reuters) -Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa headed to a run-off for Sri Lanka's presidency on Sunday, the election body said,

Marxist-leaning lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake leads early official results in Sri Lanka's presidential election, according to tallies released on Sunday by the Election Commission, but he is still short of the 50% needed for victory.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a leftist politician, has taken a commanding lead in Sri Lanka's presidential election. The election on Saturday is the first to be held since mass protests unseated the country's leader, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in 2022 after the country suffered its worst economic crisis.