Sr I Lankans have handed President Anura Kumara Dissanayake a
strong win in a snap general election giving him more
power to fight poverty and corruption. Dissanayake a political
outsider easily won the presidential election in September but his
Marxist leaning collision, the National People's power had only
three of parliament's 225 seats before Thursday's election, prompting
him to dissolve it and ask for a new mandate
. The NPP won at least two thirds majority or
nearly 62% of the vote according to results Friday from
Sr I Lanka's election commission, voters directly elect 196
members to parliament and the remaining 29 seats are assigned
based on each party's overall tally. More than 17
million. Sr I Lankans were eligible to vote lawmakers
for a five year term. A record 690 political
parties and independent groups were running in 22 districts.
Although the president has executive power, he needs a
parliamentary majority to form a cabinet and fulfill promises on
taxes, business and poverty. Danaya also plans to
abolish Sr I Lanka's controversial executive presidency but needed a
two majority in parliament to do that. Sr I
Lanka's 2022 crisis caused by a foreign currency shortage,
caused the economy to shrink 7.3% in 2022 and 2.3%
last year. With a$2.9 billion bailout from the
International Monetary Fund. The economy is recovering but high
living costs remain a major issue, especially for the 00:01:36.599 --> poor.