In a quick general election, Sri Lankans overwhelmingly defeated Anura Kumara Dissanayake, giving the country’s new leftist leader greater legislative authority to pursue measures to combat graft and reduce poverty.
Dissanayake, a social stranger in a country dominated by family events for centuries, easily won the island’s national vote in September.
But his Marxist-leaning coalition, the National People’s Power ( NPP ), had just three of parliament’s 225 seats before Thursday’s ( Nov 14 ) election, prompting him to dissolve it and seek a fresh mandate.
NPP won 107 chairs, receiving about 62 per cent or 6.8 million votes in Thursday’s vote, putting them past the lot level in the legislature, the latest results on the Election Commission of Sri Lanka’s site showed.
A two-third lot appeared within approach of the partnership.
In accordance with a proportional representation system, voters elect 196 members of parliament from 22 districts.
The remaining 29 tickets will be distributed according to each party’s equal vote across the island.
” This is a crucial turning point for Sri Lanka,” we say. After casting his vote on Thursday, Dissanayake said,” We expect a mission to form a sturdy legislature, and we are assured that the people will give us this authority.”
” There is a change in Sri Lanka’s democratic society that started in September, which had continue”.
With the exception of a dozen Psc loyalists who lit fireworks on the outskirts of Colombo, the capital, celebrations were generally unintended.
More than 17 million Sri Lankans were qualified to nominate legislators for five-year terms. In 22 electoral districts, there were a report 690 political parties and independent organizations competing.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya group, the principal challenger to Dissanayake’s partnership, won 28 chairs and about 18 per cent of the votes polled.
The New Democratic Front, backed by earlier President Ranil Wickremesinghe, won only three seats.