Victory for the left-wing party in Sri Lanka
Clear victory for Sri Lanka's President Dissanayake: His left-wing party won a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary election.
The vote is also a mandate for his policy of leading the country out of the economic crisis.
Voters in Sri Lanka have given the left-wing alliance of the new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake a comfortable majority in the parliamentary election. According to the election commission, the National People’s Power (NPP) led by the Marxist won 61.5 percent of the vote, while the party of opposition leader Sajith Premadasa won 17.6 percent. The NPP therefore has at least 159 seats in the 225-seat parliament, which means it has more than two-thirds of the seats.
The NPP surprisingly won the Jaffna district, the heartland of the Tamils in the north, as well as many other strongholds of ethnic minorities. This is a significant change in the attitude of the Tamils, who have long distrusted the Sinhalese-dominated parties in the capital city of Colombo. The alliance under opposition leader Sajith Premadasa won at least 31 parliamentary seats.
Sri Lanka is stuck in national bankruptcy
Dissanayake was only elected as the new president on September 21st – even then he defeated Premadasa. His victory was a setback for the established parties that have governed Sri Lanka since independence from Great Britain in 1948. The result of the parliamentary election strengthens the position of the 55-year-old, who wants to lead the country out of the worst economic crisis in its history with his program.
Dissanayake was only elected as the new president on September 21st – even then he defeated Premadasa. His victory was a setback for the established parties that have governed Sri Lanka since independence from Great Britain in 1948. The result of the parliamentary election strengthens the position of the 55-year-old, who wants to lead the country out of the worst economic crisis in its history with his program.
