Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has dissolved parliament, setting up snap general elections on Nov. 14. Dissanayake took office Monday after winning the country’s presidential election the day before, but his coalition—the National People’s Power, or NPP—holds just three of 225 seats in Sri Lanka’s parliament. (Reuters)
Our Take
Dissanayake’s decision to dissolve parliament is hardly a surprise—he will obviously need more than three parliamentary representatives to advance his agenda. That’s especially true because the agenda that Dissanayake, a Marxist-leaning politician, hopes to advance will in many ways mark a clear break from current policies.
Indeed, it says a lot about the state of Sri Lankan politics that Dissanayake and his People’s Liberation Front, or JVP, have gone from being a fringe faction to a major political force in just a few years. His ascent began in the aftermath of the popular uprising in July 2022 known as the Aragalaya, which drove then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from power. Rajapaksa and his family’s political dynasty before him were responsible for the policies that led to the economic crisis and, eventually, debt default that initially triggered the protests.