PRESIDENT Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s (pictured) left-wing coalition won a landslide victory in early parliamentary elections as voters rejected establishment parties blamed for triggering the economic crisis.

Dissanayake, a self-described Marxist, swept presidential elections in September with promises to fight corruption and recover stolen assets, two years after a slow-motion financial collapse inflicted great hardship on the islanders.

The decision to immediately go to the polls and secure parliamentary support for its agenda was confirmed yesterday, with the National People Power (NPP) coalition securing at least 123 seats in the 225-member parliament and on track to win many more.

The coalition has a whopping 62% of the votes with more than three-quarters of the votes counted so far, while opposition leader Sajith Premadasa’s party lags far behind with just 18%.

“People voted to get rid of corruption and a corrupt system,” said IT expert Chanaka Rajapaksha, an NPP supporter.

In an indication of the magnitude of support for Dissanayake, his party won the most votes in the northern Jaffna district, dominated by the island’s minority Tamil community, for the first time since independence from Britain in 1948.

Dissanayake, the 55-year-old son of a worker, said after voting in Thursday’s election that he expected a “strong majority” in parliament to continue his platform.

“We believe this is a very important election that will be a turning point in Sri Lanka,” he said. “In this election, the NPP expects to get a very strong majority in parliament.”

Police said the nine-hour voting period passed without any violence, unlike most voting in recent years, but three election workers, including a police officer, died of illness while on duty.

Dissanayake had been an MP for nearly 25 years and served briefly as agriculture minister, but the NPP coalition had only three seats in the outgoing parliament.

He stormed the presidency after successfully distancing himself from establishment politicians accused of plunging the country into the 2022 economic crisis.

The financial collapse was the worst in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka’s history as an independent nation, leading to months-long shortages of food, fuel and essential medicines. —AFP