President Anura Kumara’s NPP is hoping for a majority in Parliament.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Chennai: Less than two months after electing the country’s ninth Executive President, Sri Lankans will head to polling stations once again on Thursday to cast their votes to elect a new Parliament with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) seeking people’s mandate to implement much-needed economic and political reforms.
With veterans like Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP), who served as the Prime Minister six times and once as President, the powerful Rajapaksas, and other veteran leaders staying away from the crucial polls, the new Sri Lankan Parliament is likely to be dominated by new comers and first-generation politicians.
National People’s Power (NPP), the coalition headed by JVP, and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) of the outgoing Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa are locked in an intense battle for the control of 225 Parliament seats – while 196 MPs will be directly elected by the people, the remaining 29 will be nominated by parties based on their vote percentage.
The elections, in which about 1.70 crore people are eligible to cast their votes at 13,314 polling stations across the island between 7 am and 4 pm to choose among 9,000 candidates, is an acid test for Anura Kumara, the “outsider” who won the September 21 Presidential elections, defeating Sajith and Ranil.
Counting of votes will be taken up immediately after the polling ends on November 14 and results are expected to be announced by November 15.
A parliamentary majority is an absolute necessity for the NPP and the President to push through major poll promises, including combating corruption and abolishing the Executive Presidency, in Parliament.
If the NPP, which has just 3 seats in the outgoing Parliament, wins the elections by securing a simple majority or more, incumbent Dr Harini Amarasuriya is likely to be re-elected as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka by NPP MPs. Besides the poll promises, Anura Kumara is also banking on his personal popularity, which has soared since his ascent to Sri Lanka’s Presidency in September.
The government also needs a majority to get its decisions on the economy, including the IMF bailout, ratified by Parliament.
If the NPP doesn’t get a majority in Parliament, it would be very difficult for the President to implement reforms he promised. “We should establish a government that is unshakable in Parliament. To achieve this, the newly elected Parliament should be filled with elected members from our party," the President told an election rally on Monday.
Anura Kumara travelled across Sri Lanka, including northern and eastern parts that are dominated by ethnic Tamils, to ensure that his party wins the elections, considered a prestige issue for the ruling coalition. In the northern province, the President promised to return land owned by Tamils that were taken by Army and other government departments during the war and vowed to stop Indian fishermen entering Sri Lankan waters.
While NPP is likely to win a majority of seats in the Southern and Central parts of Sri Lanka, the coalition is likely to face a rout in Tamil-dominated provinces with traditional parties representing the ethnic minorities likely to win the elections.
N Sathiya Moorthy, a strategic expert who has rich experience of covering Sri Lanka, told DH that a simple majority is a given for the NPP though there are chances of the coalition securing a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
“Anura’s NPP is people’s favourite this election. They will have a stable government and run without much hitch. The government needs a majority for implementing the policies that they promised during polls. There will be no threat to the stability of the government,” Sathiya Murthy added.