Sri Lanka is set to vote on Thursday in a second national election within two months, with the opposition still struggling to recover from a heavy defeat in the presidential election.
The snap parliamentary election was called by the newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s first leftist leader, who won on a platform promising to fight corruption and reclaim the nation’s stolen assets.
Dissanayake’s party is expected to win the parliamentary vote easily, with analysts noting that the opposition remains fragmented and disorganized.
The 55-year-old leader is striving for a two-thirds majority in the 225-member parliament to advance reforms following Sri Lanka’s economic collapse in 2022, which resulted in the removal of then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Voting will take place on Thursday for 17.1 million voters, who have a choice of 8,800 candidates. Polls will open at 7:00 am (0130 GMT) and close at 4:00 pm, with initial results anticipated on Friday.
Dissanayake’s JVP, or People’s Liberation Front, is the leading party in the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, which is seeking to form the next government by appealing to professionals.
The NPP currently holds only three seats in the outgoing parliament.
Dissanayake, who has been an MP for almost 25 years and briefly served as agriculture minister, has distanced himself from the traditional political figures who are blamed for driving the country into its worst economic crisis two years ago.
His JVP party was behind two uprisings in 1971 and 1987, which caused the loss of at least 80,000 lives. Nevertheless, Dissanayake took power through a peaceful election on September 21.
