The coalition of the first left-wing president in the history of Sri Lanka, elected in September, is moving towards a landslide victory in the legislative elections on Friday, according to partial results. An outcome hoped for by the Head of State to carry out his reforms in a country in economic crisis.
The NPP led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake won an absolute majority of seats in Parliament, according to partial results released by the electoral commission on Friday. After counting more than three-quarters of the ballots cast, the coalition won at least 123 of the 225 seats in the new Parliament.
The left-wing NPP coalition, led by the president’s party, the Marxist-inspired People’s Liberation Front (JVP), is in the lead in almost all electoral districts, while it only had three of the 225 seats in the outgoing Parliament.
Countries in crisis
A Marxist by training, but widely converted to the market economy since then, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, was elected in September at the head of a country exhausted by the worst economic crisis in its history and a brutal austerity cure .
>> A lire : The leader of the left-wing coalition and ex-Marxist elected president in Sri Lanka
His promises to reduce taxes on basic necessities and eradicate corruption have ensured him broad support from voters.
“We believe that this election is crucial and will mark a turning point for the country,” the leader told the press while voting in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.
>> Listen to the 12:30 p.m. topic of September 23 on the evolution of the party of the President of Sri Lanka:
Calm elections
“The NPP expects from this election a clear mandate and a strong majority in Parliament,” added Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Supervised by more than 80,000 police officers, the early voting took place without major incident.
The counting of the votes of the 17 million registered voters began on Thursday as soon as the polling stations closed at 4:00 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. Swiss time).
All analysts predicted a large victory for the presidential camp in the face of divided adversaries. “The opposition is dead,” said analyst Kusal Perera. “The outcome of the vote is a case closed: the NPP will form the next government.”
IMF aid
Sri Lanka’s economy collapsed in 2022, forcing its government to default on its public debt, then estimated at $46 billion (41 billion francs).
Several weeks of popular protests against shortages and inflation that followed caused the fall of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in July 2022.
>> See the subject of 7:30 p.m. on July 31, 2022:
In exchange for aid of 2.9 billion dollars (2.6 billion francs) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), his successor Ranil Wickremesinghe increased tax increases and cuts in public spending.
>> A lire : IMF announces agreement on 2.9 billion bailout for Sri Lanka
Against a backdrop of fragile economic improvement, Anura Kumara Dissanayake expressed her desire to renegotiate some of the clauses of this agreement.
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