Sri Lanka’s new leftist president is on track for a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, bolstering his mandate for change in a country still reeling from the aftermath of a devastating financial crisis.
Early results on Friday showed President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power coalition had won 123 of the 171 seats declared, up from three seats previously, putting the party on track for a five-year term.
In September’s presidential election, Dissanayake defeated Sri Lanka’s legacy political camps in one of the island nation’s biggest political upsets in decades. The anti-corruption campaigner and political outsider is now charged with finalising the restructuring of the country’s $25.2bn external debt.