COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankans voted in a parliamentary election Thursday that is key for the country's new, Marxist-leaning president to consolidate his party's power and follow through on promises of economic recovery. Voting ended at 4 p.m.
local time with more than 17 million people eligible to vote. Details on the voter turnout were not immediately available. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidential election on Sept.
21 in a victory that marked a rejection of the traditional political parties, which have governed the island nation since its independence from British rule in 1948. However, Dissanayake’s failure to secure more than 50% of the vote has fueled concerns over his party’s outlook in Thursday's election. His National People’s Power party must increase its votes significantly — from the 42% it won in the presidential election — if it is to acquire a minimum of 113 seats to take control of the 225-member Parliament.
The biggest challenge for the NPP — which was founded in 2019 and is a relative newcomer on Sri Lanka’s political scene — is that many of its candidates are new faces in politics running against well-established politicians from the traditional parties. After casting his vote, Dissanayake called on voters to give his party a strong mandate to implement his programs. Of the 225 parliament seats, 196 are up for grabs under Sri Lanka's proportional representative electoral system, which allocates seats in each distr.