Sri Lanka Leftists Win Supermajority in Rebuke of Old Guard
- Dissanayake called for snap polls after his presidential win
- Top of his agenda is rewriting parts of the IMF deal
Anura Kumara Dissanayake shows his inked finger as he leaves a polling station in Colombo on Nov. 14.
Photographer: Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images
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Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s coalition won a historic parliamentary supermajority in the country’s election, underscoring the depth of the support for the leftist leader who pledges to combat corruption and change the terms of an unpopular International Monetary Fund bailout.
His National People’s Power bloc got 159 parliament seats, more than two-thirds of the 225 total that allows it to amend the constitution, according to the Election Commission of Sri Lanka. Rival Sajith Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya party had 40 seats.