Sri Lankan president's party continues winning streak in local election

Colombo: The National People's Power led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Wednesday emerged as the largest party in 265 out of 339 local municipal councils across Sri Lanka despite failing to win capital Colombo's body.

However, the National People's Power (NPP) party's ability to form administrations in those 265 bodies is in doubt as the combined opposition groups have more members than NPP in multiple councils, official results issued by the independent election commission has shown.

The election commission data showed that the ruling NPP garnered over 4.5 million votes or 43 per cent of the votes, drastically down from the 68 per cent polled at the parliamentary election held in November last year. It also had a thumping win in the presidential polls prior to that.

The main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) won just 14 of the 339 councils earning 21 per cent vote.

More than 70 per cent of the registered voters exercised their franchise on Tuesday in the local council polls, which were postponed in 2023 following the economic crisis in the island nation.

In the battle for the coveted Colombo local body, the NPP won just 48 out of the 117 seats with the opposition parties combined having more.

While the opposition parties are entertaining hopes to forge alliances, the NPP said they are happy with the achievements. “Our call to cleanse local governments has been heeded,” Tilwin Silva, the NPP general secretary, said.

In the Tamil dominated north, where the NPP recorded resounding wins in the November parliamentary election, the main Tamil party, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), performed creditably, the election office data showed.

“ITAK has won 43 out of 58 councils we contested in the northeast without any alliance. It is a phenomenal victory considering that the NPP claimed it had the mandate of the north after the parliamentary elections 2024,” TNA spokesperson MA Sumanthiran said.

The ruling NPP had won the presidential and parliamentary elections held last year and the local government election was being seen as an electoral test of the performance of the new government, whose task was to continue the economic reforms of the previous government, political analysts noted.