Party of Sri Lanka's new Marxist-leaning president takes large lead in parliamentary vote

The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took a large lead Friday in early results from the parliamentary elections, in an apparent solid mandate for his program for economic revival.

Dissanayake’s National People’s Power Party won 15 of the 22 electoral districts whose results have been released so far by the Elections Commission with the BBC reporting him taking 97 seats and 60 per cent of the vote.

Dissanayake was elected president on September 21 in a rejection of traditional political parties that have governed the island nation since its independence from British rule in 1948.

But he received just 42 per cent of the votes, fuelling questions over his party’s outlook in Thursday’s parliamentary elections. But the party received large increases in support less than two months into his presidency.

In a major surprise and a big shift in the country’s electoral landscape, his party won the Jaffna district, the heartland of ethnic Tamils in the north, and many other minority strongholds.

The victory in Jaffna marks a great dent for traditional ethnic Tamil parties that have dominated the politics of the north since independence.

Of the 225 seats in parliament, 196 were up for grabs under Sri Lanka’s proportional representative electoral system, which allocates seats in each district among the parties according to the proportion of the votes they get.

The remaining 29 seats — called the national list seats — are allocated to parties and independent groups according to the proportion of the total votes they receive countrywide.

The NPP has to get 113 seats to secure a majority.

Dissanayake’s Janatha Vimuthki Peramuna (JVP) party currently leads the NPP coalition.

“We believe that this is a crucial election that will mark a turning point in Sri Lanka,” Dissanayake told reporters after casting his vote in Colombo on Thursday.