Party of Sri Lanka's new Marxist-leaning president wins two-thirds majority in parliament

The party of Sri Lanka's new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won a two-thirds majority in parliament, according to official election results on Friday, providing a strong mandate for his programme for economic revival.

Dissanayake's National People's Power Party won 159 of the 225 seats, according to the Elections Commission. The Samagi Jana Balawegaya, or United People's Power Party, led by opposition leader Sajith Premadasa had 40 seats and was in second place.

The election comes at a decisive time for Sri Lankans as the island nation is struggling to emerge from its worst economic crisis, having declared bankruptcy after defaulting on its external debt in 2022. The size of the victory will enable Dissanayake to carry out sweeping reforms, including the enactment of a new constitution which he promised during the presidential campaign, without having to rely on other parties.

Dissanayake, a self-avowed Marxist, swept September presidential elections on a promise to combat graft and recover stolen assets, two years after a slow-motion financial crash imposed widespread hardships on the island nation.

His decision to immediately call polls nearly 10 months ahead of schedule and secure parliamentary backing for his agenda was vindicated on Friday, with his National People's Power (NPP) coalition taking 159 seats in the 225-member assembly.

The result delivered the NPP a comfortable two-thirds majority that will allow it to push constitutional amendments, including for its proposed plan to scrap the presidency altogether and make the prime minister the head of government.

"Thank you to all who voted for a renaissance," Dissanayake said in a brief statement on social media platform X.

The coalition won a monumental 61.5 per cent of the vote while opposition leader Sajith Premadasa's party was well behind with 17.6 per cent.

In a sign of the magnitude of support for Dissanayake, his party won the most votes in the northern district of Jaffna, dominated by the island's minority Tamil community, for the first time since independence from Britain in 1948. Voter turnout was estimated at under 70 percent, less than the 80 percent of eligible voters who cast a ballot in September's presidential polls.

Dissanayake, the 55-year-old son of a labourer, had been an MP for nearly 25 years and was briefly an agriculture minister but his NPP coalition held just three seats in the outgoing assembly. He stormed to the presidency after successfully distancing himself from successive leaders blamed for steering the country to its 2022 economic crisis. The financial crash was the worst in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka's history as an independent nation, sparking months-long shortages of food, fuel and essential medicines.

The resulting public anger culminated in the storming of then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa's compound, prompting his resignation and temporary exile.
Dissanayake's pledge to change a "corrupt" political culture has resonated with millions of Sri Lankans struggling to make ends meet following tax hikes and other austerity measures imposed to repair the nation's finances.

"Very happy about this victory," voter Nilusha Nilmini told AFP after the scale of the win became clear. "All this time, the country was governed by thieves, robbers and corrupt people. I am very happy that the crooks are out and a clean government has been established."

Dissanayake's JVP party, the main constituent in the NPP coalition, led two insurrections in 1971 and 1987 that resulted in at least 80,000 deaths.

Party general secretary Tilvin Silva told reporters after final results were announced that they would press ahead with promised reforms to scrap Sri Lanka's powerful executive presidency, first introduced in 1978. "We will implement the constitutional reforms we promised," Silva said. The JVP have pledged to revert Sri Lanka to full parliamentary rule, with the prime minister serving as the head of government.

Portraits of communist luminaries including Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Friedrich Engels and Fidel Castro hang in Dissanayake's JVP headquarters in the capital.

AFP / AP