The National People’s Power (NPP) led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has achieved a historic victory at the 2024 Parliamentary Elections. 

It is noteworthy that the NPP has now achieved such a resounding majority for the first time since the United National Party (UNP) led by former President J.R. Jayewardene won a five-sixths majority at the General Elections 47 years ago.

When the UNP won such a tremendous victory, the old constituency-based system of elections (first-past-the-post) was in force. But while no other political party has secured a two-thirds majority under the Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system, the NPP has secured the mandate of the people with many seats in addition to the two-thirds majority.

Coalitions led by former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa had a two-thirds majority in Parliament. But after winning less than a two-thirds majority of parliamentary seats at the elections, they later secured that majority by encouraging defections. However, this time the NPP alone has won more than a two-thirds majority of seats under the PR system, making history.

Completing a full political circle

At the start of the election campaign, President Dissanayake and Minister Vijitha Herath, who called for Parliament to be filled with members of their party, said that there was no need for an Opposition in the House.

Then at the closing stages of the election campaign, other leaders of the NPP, particularly the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), pointed out that governments with two-thirds majority had behaved in an authoritarian manner and said that they did not need such a majority, and that a strong majority was enough to run the government in an effective manner. But despite their pleas, the people have given them a huge majority.

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and former Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa urged the people to send members of their parties to Parliament claiming that the candidates fielded by the NPP had no political experience and could not handle economic affairs. However, the people ignored their requests and filled Parliament with NPP members.

Dismissing all doubts raised by Opposition parties about President Dissanayake’s ability to govern, the people have surprisingly reposed faith in him and his party.

The occasion when the NPP is about to form a new government marks a historic event in South Asia, where, after Nepal, a Left-wing political movement that led an armed insurgency to seize power is coming to power through Parliament.

The JVP, which had unsuccessfully led two insurgencies in the last century, has joined the democratic political mainstream and has now won a historic majority in Parliament. This is a milestone not only in the politics of the JVP but also in the political history of Sri Lanka. 

In its nearly 60-year history, the JVP has completed a full political circle through democratic politics after terrible experiences resulting from the insurgencies. Therefore, its huge electoral victory is also a significant event in terms of Sri Lanka’s Left-wing politics. 

With Dissanayake’s inauguration as President, the political power in Sri Lanka shifted from the leaders of political parties who represented the traditional political establishment to someone with a humble family background outside that establishment. The new Parliament, which has a large majority of members from the NPP, completes that power transition.

Backlash against Tamil parties

The new Parliament is also historic for another reason. This time the NPP has won a landslide victory not only in southern Lanka but also in almost the entire country at the Parliamentary Elections, which no national party has done so far. It has won the most number of seats in the five constituencies of the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

After Dissanayake’s victory at the Presidential Election, a desire to support his party at the Parliamentary Elections began to grow among the Tamil people in the north and east. But no one thought that the NPP would register a remarkable victory across the Tamil regions. 

In particular, the NPP, which won three of the six parliamentary seats in the Jaffna District, has rebuffed the Tamil parties that have traditionally represented the north. Even though NPP candidates were largely unpopular with the people of the north, they were able to achieve astonishing success.

The main reason the Tamil people have given such support has less to do with the attraction of the NPP. It is instead a manifestation of their distaste for the Tamil political parties that have represented them so far, which has prompted them to support the NPP. 

The Tamil people have been deeply dissatisfied with Tamil politicians who have failed to act with a united stance in order to fulfil their needs and political aspirations in the last 15 years since the end of the civil war. 

The Tamil polity is fragmented due to the attitudes of these politicians. The various political parties and groups that contested the Parliamentary Elections are proof of this. With no viable alternative in their midst, they had no choice but to turn to President Dissanayake’s party.

In the final stages of the election campaign, Tamil politicians launched a scathing attack on the NPP. They told the Tamil people that there was no difference between the other Sinhala parties and the NPP when it came to finding a political solution to the national ethnic problem.

They claimed that President Dissanayake, who came to Jaffna, had not spoken anything about a political solution to the ethnic problem. However, the way the people voted clearly shows that they did not care about these accusations. 

Many members of a national party are going to Parliament this time from the north and east, which they have never done before. It is not known how the President and leaders of the NPP interpret the support given to them by the Tamil people. 

However, it is true that many Tamil parties are experiencing the consequences of having deceived the Tamil people for a long time by relying solely on emotional nationalist slogans and not subjecting their past political path to introspection. It is too late now even for introspection.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Colombo)