Voters have handed Anura Kumara Dissanayake a significant win in a snap general election, giving its new leftist president greater legislative power to pursue policies to alleviate poverty.
The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won a landslide victory in snap legislative elections, results from the Indian Ocean island’s poll body showed on Friday.
Dissanayake’s coalition, the National People’s Power (NPP), secured at least 123 seats in the 225-member assembly, according to the partial results released by the Elections Commission.ion.
After winning the presidential election in September, Dissanayake is seeking a mandate for his policies aimed at alleviating distress among the poor in a country that has been poverty-ravaged in recent years.
Dissanayake’s coalition had just three of parliament’s 225 seats before Thursday’s election, prompting him to dissolve it and seek a fresh mandate.
