Sri Lanka President Dissanayake's coalition wins big — polls

The party of Sri Lanka's new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took a seemingly unassailable lead, results from the Indian Ocean island's poll body showed on Friday.

Dissanayake's coalition, the National People's Power (NPP), is set to win a majority in a snap election.

After winning the presidential election in September, Dissanayake is seeking a mandate for his policies aimed at alleviating distress among the poor in a country that has been poverty-ravaged in recent years.

Dissanayake's coalition had just three of parliament's 225 seats before Thursday's election, prompting him to dissolve it and seek a fresh mandate.

NPP won 52 seats, receiving almost 62% or 5.4 million votes in Thursday's election, putting them on course for a majority in the parliament, latest results on the Election Commission of Sri Lanka's website showed.

'We expect a mandate,' says Dissanayake

"We see this as a critical turning point for Sri Lanka. We expect a mandate to form a strong parliament, and we are confident the people will give us this mandate," Dissanayake said after casting his vote on Thursday. "There is a change in Sri Lanka's political culture that started in September, which must continue."

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya party of opposition leader Sajith Premadasa won 13 seats and around 19% of the votes tallied. Backed by previous President Ranil Wickremesinghe, The New Democratic Front won two seats.

Just over 17 million citizens were eligible vote in Sri Lanka. A record 690 political parties and independent groups were taking part in the election across 22 districts.

A political outsider in a country dominated by family parties for decades, Dissanayake supports policies to fight poverty, such as larger welfare measures, and graft.

jsi/sms (AP, Reuters)