THE National People’s Power (NPP) has won a historic victory in the Sri Lankan Parliament elections. For the first time, a political party has won a two-thirds majority through the  proportional representation system.  The NPP has won 159 of the 225 seats polling a record high of 61.6 per cent of the vote. This is an extraordinary performance considering the fact that the NPP had got only three seats in the last election held in 2020.

Earlier, in September, the NPP candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake had won the presidential election polling 42 per cent of the vote and winning after the second preference votes had been counted.  After assuming the presidentship, Dissanayake had dissolved Parliament and called for Parliament elections which were held on November 14.

The NPP was formed in 2019 and consists of its principal component, the Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), a Marxist party, and twenty other political parties, trade unions and social groups. Dissanayake of the JVP is the leader of the NPP.  The election of Dissanayake as the president and the NPP winning a two-third majority in Parliament marks a tectonic shift in Sri Lankan politics.  The parties that represented the social elite and family interests like the Rajapaksa’s SLPP, the splintered SLFP and Ranil Wickremesinghe’s former United National Party were all decimated in the elections. Only the SJB led by Sajith Premadasa managed to stay afloat winning 40 seats in Parliament.

The NPP won in 21 out of 22 electoral districts.  The most significant outcome has been in the Tamil districts of Jaffna and Vanni, where the NPP defeated the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and other Tamil parties.  The NPP also led the field in Ampara and Trincomalee, where there is substantial Muslim population.

In the central region also, where there is substantial Tamil plantation labour, the NPP did well apart from its sweep of the southern districts. The NPP, thus, succeeded in drawing support from all sections of society overcoming ethnic and religious identities.  

The ascent in the mass popularity of the NPP and JVP began during the serious economic crisis that crippled Sri Lanka in 2022, which led to the Aragalaya mass upsurge. This popular revolt was against the corrupt political order which the Rajapaksa clan presided over to loot the country. The NPP emerged out of the people’s revolt as they spearheaded the struggle against political corruption and as champion of the people’s economic rights and livelihood.  Anura Dissanayake became the focus for the people’s aspirations as against the rest of the tainted and corrupt leaders of the mainstream political parties.

It was essential for Dissanayake and the NPP that they win a clear majority in Parliament, so that they can govern to bring in Constitutional and political reforms and to implement alternative policies.  Without a majority in Parliament, President Dissanayake would have been handicapped in pushing through for change.  Now that the NPP has won a super majority in the Parliament, the real business of government can begin.  A 21-member cabinet has been sworn-in with Dr Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister.

President Dissanayake had not spelt out any comprehensive set of policies that he would pursue before the Parliament elections.  These can now be formulated.  The main agenda would be to provide economic relief to the people who are suffering from high prices and cost of living; elimination of corruption and waste; recovery of stolen public funds and restoration of civil liberties and democratic rights.  The NPP has also promised to bring a new Constitution and an end to the executive presidency. 

Immediately, there are challenges before the government. Sri Lanka has taken a 2.9 billion dollar loan from the IMF, of which two tranches have been paid, with onerous conditionalities which impose austerity on the people.  The government is pledged to get some of these conditionalities relaxed, so that people can get relief. The NPP government will have to steer the revival of the economy and carve out a pro-people path of development in a situation where the Sri Lankan economy driven on neoliberal lines has reached a dead end; it is vulnerable to the blackmail of international finance capital and the western governments.  The NPP leadership is aware of the importance of navigating the complex geopolitical situation while maintaining close ties with its big neighbour, India.  The substantial support that the NPP has received from the Tamil and Muslim minorities should provide a positive basis for assuring them of their rights and giving them a due share in the power structure. How this can be accomplished through changes in the Constitutional and the political system has to be worked out.

The NPP is equivalent to the Left and Democratic Front that is sought to be forged in India.  That such a Left political formation has the presidency and the government in Sri Lanka makes it a landmark event in the political history of South Asia.  For the South Asian countries, which are riven by religious and ethnic conflicts and subject to the exploitation of finance capital and corporate loot, the brilliant success of the Left in Sri Lanka is a heartening development. 

(November 20, 2024)