Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s communist coalition scored a landslide victory in a quick general election, giving him the power to carry out his pledges to combat poverty and corruption in the island nation recovering from a financial crisis.
The sweeping mandate, which included unexpected support from the country’s north and east, home to the minority Tamil people, is an unprecedented vote for change and shows that Sri Lanka is on track to go forward, observers said.
While the strong performance will strengthen political stability in the South Asian country, some uncertainty about policy direction remains due to Dissanayake’s promises to try to tweak the terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue program that bailed the country out of its economic crisis, observers noted.
However, his coalition had only three seats in parliament before Thursday’s sudden election, pushing him to disband it and seek a new mandate.
Sri Lanka typically backs the president’s party in general elections, especially if voting is held soon after a presidential vote, and it showed in the results on Friday.
“The president has a huge mandate now to carry through the reforms but also huge expectations from the people,” said Bhavani Fonseka, a researcher at Colombo think tank Centre for Policy Alternatives.
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