COLOMBO: The party of a Marxist leader on track to win Sri Lanka's presidential vote vowed Sunday not to scrap the country's unpopular $2.9 billion IMF bailout agreement, but instead renegotiate it. Presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his People's Liberation Front will "not tear up" the IMF deal,

Sri Lanka’s president said reopening talks with the International Monetary Fund over a bailout program would represent the biggest threat to the island nation’s economy, hitting back at his opponents who have pledged fresh dialogue with the lender.

Sri Lanka's Marxist-leaning leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake grabbed a commanding early lead on Sunday in his bid to become the next president of the debt-ridden country seeking to elect a leader to bolster its fragile economic recovery.