Sri Lanka's ruling party wins Elpitiya local council polls

Colombo: Sri Lanka's ruling National People’s Power (NPP) party won a local council election in the Southern Province, passing its first electoral test since winning the presidential election last month.

The Elpitiya local council elections were held on Saturday, and NPP -- the broader front of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna -- won 15 of the 30 seats.

The main opposition party in the current Parliament, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), and other splinter groups secured half of the seats. As a result, the NPP must form a coalition with one of these parties to run the council.

However, the NPP is generally politically averse to forming alliances with other parties.

Alarmingly for the ruling party, their vote percentage has dropped compared to the presidential election, where the incumbent, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected.

Since assuming office, Dissanayake has stayed on course with his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme. Sri Lanka is still in the process of recovering from its worst economic crisis in history.

Earlier in the week, the Washington-based global lender said it is in talks with Sri Lanka’s new administration on its priorities and working towards the next review to continue its Extended Fund Facility programme with the island nation.

Dissanayake has already set the next parliamentary election for November 14, seeking a mandate to form a stronger government without the need for coalition partners.

The current NPP government is being run with a three-member cabinet, which was their parliamentary strength when the 225-member Parliament came to be dissolved immediately after Dissanayake’s victory.