Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been elected as Sri Lanka's new president, becoming the first Marxist leader in the country's history. His win is seen as a referendum on economic reforms during a severe crisis.

That conflict, between the Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan state, erupted in 1983. The Tigers eventually had vast areas under their control in their fight for an independent territory in the island's north and east, but were defeated and all but wiped out in a 2009 military offensive.

Sri Lanka's Marxist president-elect Anura Kumara Dissanayaka hails from a party behind two deadly insurrections, counts Che Guevara among his heroes and will now helm a country limping back from economic ruin.