The Marxist candidate, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, led the early counting in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections on Sunday, riding a wave of popular anger at the established political order that has run the South Asian nation’s economy into the ground.

       If Mr. Dissanayake, 55, is confirmed as president, it would be a remarkable turnaround for his half-century-old leftist party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which had long remained on the margins. In recent years, he led a rebranding effort of an organization once known for deadly insurrections: building a large coalition, softening its radical positions, and pitching it as the answer to the politics of patronage that has brought only hardship to many of the island nation’s roughly 23 million people.

       Early results showed Mr. Dissanayake leading with around 40 percent of votes amid high turnout, estimated at 75 to 80 percent. His closest competitor had received about 35 percent of the votes cast.

       At least three senior leaders of his opposition, including Sri Lanka’s current foreign minister, had already put out messages congratulating him on his imminent victory, as dawn broke on overnight vote counting that is continuing.

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       But it will be hours still before his victory could be confirmed, as the results will most likely require another round of counting that includes voters’ second and third choices.

       In Sri Lanka’s ranked choice election system, voters can mark one candidate on their ballot or list three candidates in order of preference. If no candidate gets 50 percent or more of the vote, a second round of counting factors in the preferences of voters whose first choice did not make it to the top two.

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