A vendor displays newspapers for sale at a stall in Kandy on November 16, 2024. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s leftist coalition won a majority in snap parliamentary polls, provisional results showed on November 15.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The staggering mandate — over a two-thirds majority — that Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power [NPP] coalition led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake received in the November 14 general elections is a first in the country’s proportional representation system.

The unprecedented electoral feat, however, cannot be understood without appreciating the southern alliance’s political breakthrough in regions that are home to the island’s ethnic minorities. In almost all districts across Sri Lanka’s north, east, central and southern hill country, where Tamils, Muslims, and Malaiyaha Tamils live, the NPP has made impressive gains.

Editorial | A resounding victory: On the Sri Lankan election result

In the five electoral districts across the Northern and Eastern provinces, its candidates, all locals, secured 12 out of 28 seats. The NPP beat regional parties hands down in all districts but one, reflecting both the success of its outreach and the unmistakable shift within those electorates. That it did so in Jaffna and Vanni in particular, is historic for a southern political formation.

University of Jaffna academic Sengarapillai Arivalzahanattributes this largely to voters’ “anger and frustration” with long-time Tamil politicians. “Fifteen years after the war ended, Tamil people in the north and east have seen little relief or progress. There is a widely shared sentiment that the local parties and leaders were all talk and no action,” says the mathematician, who supported the NPP.

The prevalent disenchantment with their old leadership was one key reason, but it cannot entirely explain the shift. Tamils have been concerned that the fragmented Tamil nationalist polity, pre-occupied with internal disagreements, was weakening their voice in the national arena.

Further, through the post-war period, most Tamil parties focused mainly on war-time accountability and a political solution to the national question. Barring a few actors who took up local struggles over land grabs by the state, they rarely acknowledged or flagged the enormous financial strain facing most households.

Mounting household debt, joblessness, precarity surrounding rural livelihoods, and the abject absence of economic revival that stifled people’s daily lives in the war-affected region did not get their attention. In this context, President Dissanayake’s effective messaging recently appears to have connected with the ordinary Tamil voter.

Outdoing ITAK

Despite constraints, the formerly dominant Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) that ran alone — its former partners in the Tamil National Alliance contested through other formations — still managed to secure eight seats, points out party member Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, who was re-elected as Batticaloa MP. Apart from the three NPP candidates in Jaffna, former legislator and senior politician S. Shritharan retained his seat, while former MP and lawyer M.A. Sumanthiran, a spokesman of the party, lost his. Jaffna district also saw the re-election of All Ceylon Tamil Congress Leader Gajen Ponnambalam and the entry of an independent candidate.

“Our party [ITAK] had many challenges. Some diaspora groups were bankrolling few local forces and pushing a divisive agenda,” says Mr. Rasamanickam, who emerged the top candidate in Batticaloa. He is also credited with leading a focused campaign in the district, where the ITAK won three seats, while the NPP won just one. It is the only district where any other political party beat the NPP. Reflecting on the verdict, the 34-year-old says: “Going forward, it is clear that Tamil nationalist assertion without a focus on people’s economic and livelihood hardships will not help.”

Meanwhile, the NPP appears to have drawn more Muslim voters in the east, going by its victory in neighbouring Ampara and Trincomalee districts, where many in the community say they have lost faith in their local leadership. All the same, well-known Muslim leaders, Rauf Hakeem of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress who contested from the central Kandy district, and Rishad Bathiudeenof the All Ceylon Makkal Congress, who ran from northern Mannar, that is part of the Vanni electorate district, retained their seats.

‘Workers as people’

The NPP’s performance in the hill country, too, is remarkable, especially in districts that were bastions of the Ceylon Workers’ Congress and its rival Tamil Progressive Alliance.

While the traditional parties saw estate workers as “just a vote bank”, the NPP approached them as “people”, says Krishnan Kalaichelvi, who won from Nuwara Eliya district. Her victory, along with that of NPP candidate Ambika Samuel in neighbouring Badulla district, marks Malaiyaha Tamil women’s entry in to the Sri Lankan parliament for the first time.

“We campaigned hard on the ground, listening to people’s issues over wages, land rights, children’s education. It was the youth who backed us first, they have been waiting for change. Over time, they spoke to their families on our behalf and our support base grew,” says the long-time political activist and daughter of an estate worker. “My father gave his labour to his country till the time of his death… there are scores of people like him. The old political leadership was interested in its own power, not the people,” she says, adding that the NPP “went directly to the people” rather than through “power brokers and middlemen”. In Ms. Kalaichelvi’s view, Mr. Dissanayake’s declaration at a meeting in Hatton town in 2023 that he would recognise our people as “Malaiyaha Tamils” rather than “estate Tamils” struck a chord with many.

It is now amply clear that ethnic minorities have willingly placed their trust in President Dissanayake, observes the Jaffna-based academic Mr. Arivalzahan. “The President and his government have a moral obligation to keep their promises now,” he adds.

Tilvin Silva, general secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP or People’s Liberation Front) of Sri Lanka, is seen at the party’s headquarters in Colombo on November 15, 2024, after the party-led alliance secured a landslide win in the island nation’s parliamentary elections.  
| Photo Credit: Meera Srinivasan

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna [JVP or People’s Liberation Front], which leads Sri Lanka’s ruling National People’s Power [NPP], could not have risen to power without widening its appeal and building a mass support base over the last few years, and the current political moment affords the party a chance to rewrite its history, general secretary Tilvin Silva said.

“When you want to obtain power, you need a mass support base,” he said on Friday (November 15, 2024), just as the NPP’s resounding win in the November 14 general elections became evident. Speaking to The Hindu at the party’s headquarters in Battaramulla near Colombo, Mr. Silva called the election win “a huge achievement”. “In particular, the victory in Jaffna and in the upcountry area, where we were able to defeat deeply entrenched traditional parties and political families. This gives us a real chance to build a united country,” he said, referring to the JVP’s historic win in the Tamil-majority northern district.

The party that once vehemently opposed Tamils’ political rights won three seats in Jaffna, outdoing traditional Tamil parties that were the community’s main voice in national politics. In Nuwara Eliya district, in the central hill country that is home to Sri Lanka’s famed tea estates and Malaiyaha Tamils who toil in them, the NPP won five seats and nearly 42% of the vote share.

Barely two months after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected President, the NPP fought Thursday’s (November 14, 2024) election knowing it would win. “Even those who were sceptical of us earlier began seeing that we were very committed to rebuilding the country, its political culture and economy,” Mr. Silva said.

Broadening the base

“We began appealing to more people just in the last one and a half months.” However, the NPP did not project a two-third majority, which is hard to obtain in Sri Lanka’s proportional representation system. On election day, Mr. Dissanayake said he expected “strong representation” in parliament, and that two-thirds would not be necessary.

Mr. Silva told local media on Friday (November 15, 2024): “We did not ask for a two-thirds majority. The public believed in us and gave us this power. Our responsibility is to carefully use this power and to safeguard their trust.”

Set up in 2019, the NPP is a broad social coalition rather than a conventional electoral alliance of different parties. It identifies as a “political movement”, comprising 21 diverse groups, including political parties, youth and women’s organisations, trade unions and civil society networks. The JVP remains its chief constituent, making up its political core. All the same, party general secretary Mr. Silva did not run in the elections, deciding to keep the party and government separate.

“The main problem in our country was the political culture. The foundation of the grave economic crisis we suffered was this very political culture,” he said, referring to political parties and groups “fighting bitterly” in the past for state resources, vehicles, “to enrich their own families”.

“If we want to defeat that culture, we felt it was important to keep that distinction between the party and the government.” On the relationship among the party’s influential politburo, the NPP, and the government, he said: “It’s not as if we’re different political groups taking different decisions. We work as one unit [on policy matters].”

Past vs. present

The JVP has seen considerable shifts in the last five decades. The party with Marxist-Leninist origins led two armed insurrections — in 1971 and in 1987-89. Its ideological emphasis changed from Marxism and redistributive justice in the 1970s to Sinhala chauvinism in the 1980s, when it resisted power-sharing with the Tamils.

However, Mr. Silva contended that the party’s history needed to be retold with context. “There is a wrong perception because our history was written by those who defeated us, the victors. Our path was not willingly chosen, it was forced upon us.” Alluding to the allegations of brutal violence facing the JVP, he added: “It was not [our] action, but a reaction from our end. If the [state’s] repression was armed, so was [our] response.”

In his view, the current political moment in Sri Lanka has opened up space to rewrite the story of not just the party, but also of the country, “without characterising some as terrorists who took up arms for no reason”. “But we want to tell this story not with words, but with our action. The present context gives a chance to do that.”

Queried on concerns among sections that the “Marxist party” might resist the Dissanayake government’s efforts to take forward the ongoing programme of the International Monetary Fund aimed at addressing Sri Lanka’s debt vulnerabilities, Mr. Silva pointed to “misconceptions” about Marxism. “It is not a set philosophy. Marxism is really about providing answers to people’s problems at a particular time and context. We are committed to doing that through development, eliminating rural poverty, rooting out political corruption, social justice and national unity that is important for our country. We want to build a clean and beautiful Sri Lanka.”

The ruling National People’s Power party led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is poised for a sweeping victory in the Sri Lankan parliamentary election
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The ruling National People’s Power party led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is poised for a sweeping victory in the Sri Lankan parliamentary election held on Thursday (November 14, 2024).

As of 11 p.m. local time, with partial results declared, the NPP has secured a substantial 70% of the vote. The main opposition, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), and the National Democratic Front (NDF), backed by former president Ranil Wickremesinghe, have been reduced to just 11% and 5% of the vote, respectively.

In the only polling division result announced so far, the NPP won decisively in the southern province capital of Galle with over 70% of the vote.

Analysts note that the NPP has increased its vote share compared to the September presidential election. If this trend continues, the party will surpass the 150-seat mark, achieving an absolute majority in the 225-member parliament.

Thursday’s (November 14, 2024) election was the first major test for NPP. The snap parliamentary polls were the first after the 2022 economic crisis.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe addresses his supporters after submitting his nomination papers for the upcoming presidential election, scheduled for September 21, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on August 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

COLOMBO

As many as 39 presidential aspirants will contest a crucial poll in Sri Lanka on September 21, the Election Commission said on Thursday (August 15, 2024), after closing nominations.

Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who rose to the top office through a parliamentary vote during the island nation’s 2022 crisis, is seeking a mandate to take forward his government’s economic reform agenda.

Mr. Wickremesinghe, 75, is contesting as an independent candidate on a “stability” plank, while his main challengers Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, who broke away from Mr. Wickremesinghe’s United National Party following political differences, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who leads the centre-left National People’s Power alliance, are promising change.

More recently, Namal Rajapaksa, son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, entered the race, becoming the first prominent member from the family to face the electorate after a people’s movement dislodged them from power in 2022, when the island experienced its worst financial meltdown in decades. Lawyer Nuwan Bopage, a prominent activist representing a section of the 2022 uprising, is also contesting for the recently formed ‘People’s Struggle Alliance’.

Addressing supporters after filing his nomination President Wickremesinghe said, “Had I not stepped up [in 2022] Sri Lanka would face the crisis now plaguing Bangladesh… I ask for your mandate to continue this work.”

Many Sri Lankans credit Mr. Wickremesinghe for leading the country at a challenging time and setting its economy on a path of recovery. However, his government’s austerity measures, introduced as part of an Internal Monetary Fund-backed programme, have hit most citizens hard. His opponents Mr. Premadasa and Mr. Dissanayake have promised to renegotiate the IMF’s package and alleviate the economic suffering ofSri Lankans.

Nearly 17 million eligible voters will have a say on September 21, when the country goes to the polls for the first time after former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was unseated by citizens in 2022.

President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will contest the Presidential election as an independent candidate, his aide said on July 7.

Deputy Chairman of the United National Party Ruwan Wijewardene confirmed that the presidential election will definitely be held and Mr. Wickremesinghe, 75, will contest the election as an independent candidate, News 1st reported.

“Only one leader possesses the knowledge to solve Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. That is Ranil Wickremesinghe. He has proved it with his actions,” he was quoted as saying by the news portal.

On July 7, Election Commission Chairman R.M.A.L. Ratnayake said the electoral body would be legally empowered after July 17 to announce the date for the election.

Mr. Ratnayake added that the commission will announce the date for the next presidential poll before the end of this month.

The Election Commission in May said the presidential election would be conducted between September 17 and October 16.

Mr. Ratnayake said the commission is currently in the process of putting final touches to the 2024 electoral register which will be the basis for the election. Over 17 million would be eligible to vote in the election as per the revised list, officials said.

In April 2022, the island nation declared its first-ever sovereign default since gaining Independence from Britain in 1948. The unprecedented financial crisis led President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit office in 2022 amid civil unrest over his inability to handle the crisis.

In July 2022, Mr. Wickremesinghe was elected through parliament to become stop-gap President for the balance term of Mr. Rajapaksa.

Mr. Wickremesinghe, also the Finance Minister, hasn’t made any public statement on his bid for re-election.

“This election isn’t merely about selecting individuals but about choosing the most effective system for our country’s progress. If you believe in the merits of the current approach, let us proceed accordingly,” the President’s Media Division quoted him as saying earlier.

The government under Mr. Wickremesinghe has set in place hard economic reforms as dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

President Wickremesinghe last month said that his government has finalised a long-delayed debt restructuring agreement for $5.8 billion with its bilateral lenders, including India and China, in Paris to meet a key condition of an IMF bailout.