Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe did not scrap his re-election campaign days before the bankrupt nation voted in the first poll since its economic collapse, contrary to claims spread online.

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.