Sri Lankan president’s NPP secures parliamentary majority

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Thursday secured a majority in parliament, according to official results announced by the elections commission.

The NPP contesting under the Malimawa (compass) symbol secured 123 seats out of the 171 declared seats, as per the results by 11 am.

The results for 25 out of total 196 seats were left to be declared.

Another 29 seats were expected to be allocated to all parties based on the cumulative national polling.

The NPP has received 6.8 million or 61 per cent of the votes counted, taking a commanding lead over its rivals.

The party is on track to get a two thirds majority as it is expected to add to its tally a bulk from the 29 seats, taking the party to the absolute majority of 150 seats in the 225-member assembly.

In the northern Jaffna district, the cultural capital of the Tamil minority, NPP -- the predominant Sinhala majority party from the south of the country -- won the entire district over the traditional Tamil nationalist parties.

The NPP won three out of the six seats in Jaffna province, stunning the traditional Tamil parties which dominated the scene.

No Sinhala majority parties have won Jaffna ever before. The grand old United National Party (UNP) had previously won an odd solitary seat in Jaffna.

The NPP won the Jaffna district with over 80,000 votes and the grand old Tamil party trailed by a little over 63,000 in the final count of Thursday's polling.

This resonated pre-election comments by President Dissanayake who said his party was being accepted as a truly national party by all communities. “The era of dividing and setting one community against the other has ended as people are embracing the NPP," Dissanayake, the NPP leader, said.

The NPP under its original Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) violently opposed any attempt of power sharing -- a key Tamil demand during the armed separatist campaign of the LTTE. The Tamils only saw them as Sinhala majority racists.

The election came a year ahead of schedule as Dissanyaake dismissed the parliament immediately after taking charge as the president in September.

The new parliament is set to meet next week.