Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake arrives to vote in the parliamentary elections in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, November 14, 2024. ERANGA JAYAWARDENA / AP The coalition of the first left-wing president in Sri Lanka’s history, elected in September, is moving, Friday, November 15, towards an overwhelming victory in the legislative elections, according to partial results, an outcome hoped for by the Head of State to carry out his reforms. in a country in economic crisis. The NPP led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake dominated the vote with 63% of the votes, according to partial results released by the electoral commission and covering more than half of the votes. The left-wing NPP coalition, led by the president’s party, the Marxist-inspired People’s Liberation Front (JVP), is in the lead in almost all electoral districts, although it only had three of the 225 seats of the outgoing Parliament. A Marxist by training but widely converted to the market economy since then, Mr. Dissanayake, 55, was elected in September at the head of a country exhausted by the worst economic crisis in its history and a brutal austerity cure. His promises to reduce taxes on basic necessities and eradicate corruption have ensured him broad support from voters. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In Sri Lanka, voters put a Marxist at the head of the country, ravaged by five years of crisis Read later “We believe that this election is crucial and will mark a turning point for the country,” declared Mr. Dissanayake in front of the press while voting in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. “The NPP expects from this election a clear mandate and a strong majority in Parliament,” he added. Early voting without major incident Supervised by more than 80,000 police officers, the early voting took place without major incident. The counting of the votes of the 17 million registered voters began on Thursday as soon as the polling stations closed at 4 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. Paris time). Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers The new Sri Lankan president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, should distance himself from India Read later All analysts predicted a large victory for the presidential camp in the face of divided adversaries. “The opposition is dead,” said analyst Kusal Perera. “The result of the vote is a closed case: the NPP will form the next government. » Even if her party retained the communist hammer and sickle as its emblem, Anura Kumara Dissanayake campaigned with the unexpected support of economic circles. Once worried, business leaders and businessmen were reassured by his decision not to throw away the agreement reached in 2023 with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to try to get the country back on track. Sri Lanka’s economy collapsed in 2022, forcing its government to default on its public debt, then estimated at $46 billion (€42 billion). Several weeks of popular protests against shortages and inflation that followed caused the fall of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in July 2022. In exchange for aid of 2.9 billion dollars (2.6 billion euros) from the IMF, his successor Ranil Wickremesinghe increased tax increases and cuts in public spending. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Presidential election in Sri Lanka: the hope of opening a new chapter after the 2022 revolution Read later Against a backdrop of fragile economic improvement, Mr. Dissanayake expressed his desire to renegotiate some of the clauses of this agreement. Le Monde Application La Matinale du Monde Every morning, find our selection of 20 articles not to be missed Download the application The IMF has started discussions on the “alternative approaches” defended by Mr. Dissanayake but also recalled the need to “protect and to develop » the efforts undertaken. Le Monde with AFP Reuse this content
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