According to the official results of Friday’s elections, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning new President, won a majority of two-thirds in parliament. This gives him a mandate for his economic revival program.

According to the Elections Commission, Dissanayake’s National People’s Power Party has won 159 out of 225 seats.

Second place was the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (United People’s Power Party) led by Sajith Premadasa. The party had 40 seats.

The election takes place at a crucial time for Sri Lankans. They are struggling to recover from the worst economic crisis of their history.

The margin of victory allows Dissanayake, who campaigned on a new constitution, to implement sweeping reforms without having to depend on other parties.

Dissanayake, who was elected as president on September 21, rejected the traditional political parties which have governed Sri Lanka since 1948 when it gained independence from British rule. His party was questioned about its prospects for Thursday’s parliamentary election after he received only 42% of votes. The party’s support increased dramatically in the first two months of his presidency.

His party has won many minority strongholds, including Jaffna, the heartland for ethnic Tamils living in the north. This is a huge surprise.

The Jaffna victory is a major blow to the traditional ethnic Tamil parties who have dominated politics in the north ever since independence.

The attitude of Tamils has also changed dramatically. They have been wary of leaders who are ethnically Sinhalese for a long time. Ethnic Tamil rebels waged an unsuccessful civil conflict in 1983-2009 for a separate homeland. They claimed they were marginalized by governments controlled solely by Sinhalese.

According to conservative estimates by the U.N., more than 100 000 people have been killed in this conflict.

Tilvin Silva, a top NPP official, described the victory in the election as “complete” and “political weight”, because voters across the country supported a single platform. He thanked the Tamil voters of the north in particular for having faith in a leader from outside their stronghold.

“We understand the importance of this victory.” “The people have put immense trust in us, and we must maintain that trust,” said he.

Veeragathy thanabalasingham is a political analyst based in Colombo. She said that northern voters chose NPP as they were disappointed with the traditional Tamil parties, but couldn’t find an alternative.

He said: “The Tamil parties have been divided and contested individually, resulting in the Tamil people’s representation being scattered.”

Sri Lanka’s electoral process, which distributes seats to parties in each district based on the percentage of votes they receive, allowed 196 seats in the parliament.

The 29 remaining seats, called national list seats, are allocated according to the percentage of votes received by each party or independent group.

Sri Lanka has just completed a debt restructuring program with international creditors. The bailout with the International Monetary Fund is still ongoing.

Dissanayake stated during his presidential campaign that the IMF agreement signed by Wickremesinghe’s predecessor would be significantly altered, as it was too burdensome for the people. He has changed his mind and now says that Sri Lanka will comply with the agreement.

Sri Lanka’s crisis is largely due to economic mismanagement and the fallout of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This, along with the militant attacks that took place in 2019, has devastated the tourism industry. The pandemic disrupted the flow remittances sent by Sri Lankans who work abroad.

In 2019, the government slashed tax rates, depleting the Treasury just as the virus struck. Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves plunged, making it impossible to import goods or defend the rupee, its national currency.

Sri Lanka’s economic turmoil led to a crisis in politics that forced the then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to resign by 2022. Wickremesinghe was then elected by Parliament to replace him.

Wickremesinghe stabilised the economy, lowered inflation, strengthened the rupee and increased foreign reserves. He lost the election, however, as the public became dissatisfied with the government’s attempts to raise revenue through higher electricity bills and new income taxes for professionals and businesses in order to meet IMF requirements.

The NPP also drew voters with its cry for a change in political culture and the end of corruption because the parties who ruled Sri Lanka up to now were perceived as being responsible for the economic collapse.

The promise of Dissanayake to punish former government members accused of corruption, and to retrieve allegedly stolen assets raised a lot of hope amongst the people.

Jeewantha Balisuriya (42), a 42-year-old businessman from Gampaha said that he hoped Dissanayake would use his resounding win to rebuild the nation.

“People have given a strong mandate to them.” “I am hopeful that NPP will use the mandate to lift the country out of the current pathetic state,” he said.