Sri Lanka: Landslide victory and absolute majority for the president's camp in legislative elections

A successful bet: the first left-wing president of the Sri Lanka's history has won hands down the legislative elections by winning an absolute majority which gives him a free hand to reform the country.

A Marxist by training but largely converted to the market economy since then, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, was elected in September to lead a country exhausted by the worst economic crisis in its history and a brutal austerity drive.

His promises to reduce taxes on basic goods and to eradicate corruption have won him broad popular support.

After counting more than three-quarters of the votes cast, the NPP coalition led by the presidential party, the People's Liberation Front (JVP), has won at least 123 of the 225 seats in the new Parliament.

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake leaves the polling station in Colombo where he fulfilled his electoral duty in the November 14, 2024, snap parliamentary elections © AFP – Ishara S. KODIKARA

The NPP, which held only three seats in the outgoing legislature, had already won nearly 62% of the vote, far ahead of the opposition parties.

It came in first in 21 of the country's 22 districts with more than 5.68 million votes, more than the score achieved by the country's new strongman when he was elected in September.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa's party won just 18 percent of the vote, while that of Mr. Dissanayake's predecessor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, won just 4.5 percent, according to results released by the electoral commission.

“People voted to get rid of corruption and this corrupt system,” NPP voter Chanaka Rajapaksha told AFP on Friday.

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By voting Thursday in the capital Colombo, the president appeared very confident in his chances of victory. “We believe this election is crucial and will mark a turning point for the country,” he anticipated before the press.

– “New country” –

“I hope for a new country, a new government that understands the people,” wished Milton Gankandage, a 70-year-old retiree, on Thursday as he cast his ballot in the suburbs of the capital.

All analysts had predicted a landslide victory for the presidential camp against divided opponents.

“The opposition is dead,” said analyst Kusal Perera. “The outcome of the election is a closed case: the NPP will form the next government.”

Voters pose for a photo with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who cast his ballot in Colombo during the November 14 snap parliamentary elections © AFP – Ishara S. KODIKARA

Even though his party retained the communist hammer and sickle as its emblem, Anura Kumara Dissanayake campaigned with unexpected support from business circles.

At one time worried, business leaders and businessmen were reassured by his decision not to throw out the 2023 agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to try to get the country back on track.

Sri Lanka's economy collapsed in 2022, forcing its government to default on its debt. public debt, then estimated at $46 billion (€42 billion).

Several weeks of popular protests against the shortages and inflation that followed caused the fall of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in July 2022.

In exchange for $2.9 billion (€2.6 billion) in aid from the IMF, his successor Ranil Wickremesinghe increased tax increases and cuts in public spending.

Against a backdrop of fragile economic recovery, Mr. Dissanayake expressed his willingness to renegotiate some of the clauses of this agreement.

The IMF has begun discussions on “alternative approaches” defended by Mr. Dissanayake but also recalled the need to “protect and develop” the efforts undertaken.

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