Disanayake's 'storm' in Sri Lanka was a huge victory, and now these changes will be implemented in the country.
In Sri Lanka, the NPP alliance led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has got a huge majority in the parliamentary elections. In the results released on Friday, the NPP has won 141 out of 196 seats in the Sri Lankan Parliament. Meanwhile, Sajith Premadasa's Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) came second with 35 seats.
According to the Sri Lanka Election Commission website, the NPP has secured nearly 62% or more than 68.63 lakh votes at the national level in the counting. Premadasa's main opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has got about 18 percent, while the National Democratic Front (NDF) supported by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe has got only 4.5 percent votes.
Mum Ali Sabry, advisor to the President and former Justice, Finance and Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, explained how the Jaffna district voted for a party based in the south for the first time in history, while Tamil parties contested separately. 55-year-old leftist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake is the head of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). This is the first time in the history of Sri Lanka that a leftist party has come to power. Anura is considered close to China.
In the 225-seat Sri Lankan Parliament, any party has to win 113 seats to get a majority. Out of these, victory on 196 seats is decided through public voting, and candidates for the remaining 29 seats are selected through a national list.
Under the National List process, all political parties or independent groups in Sri Lanka submit a list of some candidates to the Election Commission. Later, candidates are selected from the list of each party in proportion to the votes received by the party or group from the public.
Dissanayake passed the test of fire
The parliamentary elections held on Thursday were the first major test for President Anura Dissanayake, he was elected President in September itself by getting 42.31 percent votes, but his party did not have a majority in the Sri Lankan Parliament. Due to which the President dissolved the Parliament and ordered early elections. Let us tell you that these are the first parliamentary elections 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 people. He had promised to end the executive presidency, under which most of the ruling powers in Sri Lanka are with the President. The executive presidency system was first implemented in 1978, when President Jayewardene was in power. Although for the past several years there was a demand to end this system in Sri Lanka, no party had the courage to do so. Before the presidential election, Dissanayake had blamed this system for the country's economic and political crisis.
Apart from this, he also promised to end corruption in the government system and the agreement made by Ranil Wickremesinghe's government to take loan from IMF. To implement all these changes, the President needed to get the law passed by the Parliament and amend the Constitution, so now that Anura's party has got absolute majority in the parliamentary elections, it is being speculated that some big changes can be seen in Sri Lanka soon.