Sri Lanka Gives Anura Dissanayake Super Majority in Parliament
Image credit X.com
NPP Wins Two-Third Majority in Sri Lankan Parliament
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, November 15: Sri Lankan President Anura Dissanayake has asserted his undisputed hold in the national politics by winning two-third majority in parliament. Dissanayake-led Jathika Jana Balawegaya won 158 seats in Sri Lankan parliament in a one-sided election.
Jathika Jana Balawegaya is also known as National Peoples’s Power (NPP), which is an alliance of several social groups and 21 political parties in Sri Lanka.
The Samagi Jana Balawegaya, the main rival of the NPP, could win just 48 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament. The Samagi Jana Balawegaya is also a political alliance led by Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa.
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The two-third mandate to NPP enables Dissanayake to carry out key reforms that he had promised during the campaign trails of the Presidential elections a few months ago.
“A super majority enables Anura Dissanayake to fulfil these important promises he made, among many: Abolition of the Presidential system New/change in Constitution re-negotiate with IMF and new fiscal policy,” said Aditya Gowdara Shivmurthy, an associate fellow with ORF.
The NPP swept through the parliamentary elections across the country by gaining victories in areas where national alliances had not won in the past. The NPP has just three seats in the last parliament.
“Dissanayake’s NPP secures an unprecedented two-third majority in parliament — the first time a single party has achieved this under the Proportional Representation system,” noted Azzam Ameen, a Colombo-based journalist.
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Sri Lanka’s former Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry in a post on X summed up the verdict, saying that “for the first time in history, the people of Jaffna have voted for a national party based in the South in a general elections when Tamil parties have contested separately”.
“This moment is not just about electoral results — it’s a powerful symbol of hope, trust, and unity across our nation. It reminds us that the real differences have always been more political than personal, and this shift shows that the people are ready to move beyond divisions,” Sabry added.
The Sri Lankan political observers have credited to an extraordinary rise of Dissanayake’s NPP to the vocal and aggressive campaign of ‘Generation Z’, the youth, against former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. They had played the pivotal role in ousting Rajapaksa from power in Colombo.
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Until Rajapaksa fled from Sri Lanka in the midst of the ‘Go Gotta, Go’ campaign, his clan dominated the national politics. Now his clan has been decimated from the national politics along with all those who worked with him such as the last President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
“Sri Lanka has spoken, calling for real change and a Sri Lankan identity. The people have decisively turned away from traditional politics,” said Chathuranga Abey, a Colombo-based political analyst, in a comment on X.
He stated that the “victory empowers the President with a strong mandate in parliament to drive forward anti-corruption reforms, boost economic growth, and transform our political culture for a better future”.
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