Sri Lankan President Anura Dissanayake (Tharaka Basnayaka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In Sri Lanka, the PNP alliance led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won an overwhelming majority in the parliamentary elections. According to results released on Friday, the PNP won 141 of 196 seats in Sri Lanka’s Parliament. Meanwhile, Sajith Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) came second with 35 seats.
According to the Sri Lanka Election Commission website, in the count, the NPP has secured around 62% or more than 68.63 lakh votes nationwide. Premadasa’s main opposition party, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), won around 18 percent of the vote, while the National Democratic Front (NDF), supported by former president Ranil Wickremesinghe, has so far only won 5 percent of the votes.
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Successful early election bet
President Anura Dissanayake’s decision to hold early elections in Sri Lanka was a success. His party obtained better results in the parliamentary elections than in the presidential ones.
Sri Lanka parliamentary election results (Source: ECSL)
Mum Ali Sabri, presidential advisor and former Minister of Justice, Finance and Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka, described how Jaffna district voted for a southern-based party for the first time in history, while Tamil parties have contested elections separately. Leftist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, is the chief of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). This is the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that a left-wing party has come to power. Anura It is considered close to China.
Mathematics of the majority in the Sri Lanka Parliament
In Sri Lanka’s 225-seat Parliament, any party must win 113 seats to have a majority. Of these, victory in 196 seats is decided by public voting, candidates for the remaining 29 seats are selected by a national list.
Under the National List process, all political parties or independent groups in Sri Lanka submit a list with the names of some candidates to the Electoral Commission. Candidates are then selected from each party’s list in proportion to the votes received. party or group of the public.
Dissanayake passed the acid test
The parliamentary elections held on Thursday were the first major test for President Anura Dissanayake, who was elected president in September with 42.31 percent of the vote, but his party did not have a majority in Sri Lanka’s Parliament. Therefore, the president ordered the dissolution of Parliament and the holding of early elections. We tell you that these are the first parliamentary elections to be held in Sri Lanka after the economic crisis of 2022.
Will these changes be implemented in Sri Lanka?
During the presidential election, Dissanayake had made many important promises to the public: he had promised to abolish the Executive Presidency, under which most of Sri Lanka’s governing powers rest with the President. The Executive Presidency System was first implemented in 1978, when President Jayawardene was in power. Although over the past few years there has been a demand to abolish this system in Sri Lanka, no party has shown the courage to do so. Before the presidential elections, Dissanayake had blamed this system for the country’s economic and political crisis.
The position of President Dissanayake upon completing 50 days of government
Happy 50th day to the country! Days 50 minutes! 50 great days for the country! pic.twitter.com/oRV4fJrly4
– Anura Kumara Dissanayake (@anuradisanayake) November 15, 2024
Apart from this, he also promised to end corruption in the government machinery and the agreement reached to receive loans from the IMF during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government. To implement all these changes, the President needed Parliament to pass laws and amendments to the Constitution, so now that Anura’s party has obtained an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections, it is estimated that some important changes will soon be seen in Sri Lanka. Lanka.
