COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankans voted in parliamentary elections Thursday. the country’s new, Marxist-leaning president to consolidate his party’s power and fulfill his promises of economic recovery.

Voting ended at 16:00 local time and more than 17 million people had the right to vote. Details on voter turnout were not yet available.

Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake He won the presidential election on September 21 in a victory that marked a rejection of the traditional political parties that have governed the island nation since independence from British rule in 1948.

But Dissanayake’s failure to secure more than 50% of the vote has raised concerns about his party’s outlook on Thursday’s election.

The National People’s Power party needs to significantly improve its vote share from the 42 percent it won in the presidential election to secure at least 113 seats to take control of the 225-member Parliament.

The biggest challenge for the NPP, which was founded in 2019 and is relatively new to Sri Lanka’s political scene, is that most of its candidates are new faces in politics competing against established politicians from traditional parties.

After casting his vote, Dissanayake appealed to voters to give his party a strong mandate to implement its programmes.

Of the 225 seats in parliament, 196 are up for grabs under Sri Lanka’s proportional representation electoral system, which distributes seats among parties in each region according to the proportion of votes they receive.

The remaining 29 seats, called national list seats, are allocated to parties and independent groups according to the total vote share they receive across the country.

8 thousand 821 candidates are competing for 196 seats of elected members of the parliament.

Sajith Premadasa, who came second in the presidential election, and his Samagi Jana Balawegaya or United People Power party, are the NPP’s main rival.

While campaigning for his party’s candidates, Dissanayake appealed to voters to help elect them to Parliament to avoid needing a coalition to implement his promised reforms.

Election results are expected to be announced on Friday.

The election comes at a decisive time for Sri Lankans as the island nation, which declared bankruptcy in 2022 after failing to repay its external debt, tries to emerge from its worst economic crisis.

The country is currently in the midst of a bailout program with the International Monetary Fund and debt restructuring with international creditors is almost complete.

During his presidential campaign, Dissanayake said that he planned to propose significant changes to the targets set in the IMF agreement signed by his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe, and that the agreement placed too much burden on the public. However, he has since changed his stance and said Sri Lanka will comply with the agreement.

Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely a result of economic mismanagement and the effects of terrorist attacks in 2019, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated its key tourism industry. The pandemic has also disrupted the flow of money from Sri Lankans working abroad.

The government also cut taxes in 2019, depleting the treasury just as the virus hit. Foreign exchange reserves plummeted and Sri Lanka was unable to pay for imports or defend its currency, the rupee.

Sri Lanka’s economic turmoil led to a political crisis that forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign in 2022. Parliament then elected Wickremesinghe to replace him.

Under Wickremesinghe, the economy stabilized, inflation fell, the local currency strengthened, and foreign reserves increased. However, he lost the election due to growing public dissatisfaction with the government’s efforts to raise revenue by increasing electricity bills and imposing heavy new income taxes on professionals and businesses, as part of the government’s efforts to meet IMF conditions.

Dissanayake’s promises to punish members of previous governments accused of corruption and recover allegedly stolen assets also raised great hope among the public.