Colombo: The brothers ruling Sri Lanka scored a landslide victory in parliamentary elections that could help President Gotabaya Rajapaksa push through contentious constitutional changes to restore sweeping executive powers to his office.
Rajapaksa — who has run a minority government since he won a November presidential poll and appointed his brother and former strongman leader Mahinda as the prime minister — wanted to win a two-thirds majority in the island’s 225-seat parliament. That would allow him to bolster the role of the presidency and give him greater influence over the judiciary, military and bureaucracy.
A constitutional amendment under former Prime Minister Ranil Wickresinghe’s United National Party government had clipped some of those presidential powers.
Gotabaya’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Party polled 59.1% to 23.9% for Sajith Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya party, which translated to 145 and 54 parliamentary seats respectively, according to state television Rupavahini. A two-third majority amounts to 150 seats.
Gotabaya’s SLPP faced a weakened opposition in this parliamentary election as Premadasa, his main rival in the presidential poll, broke away from the UNP earlier this year and set up a new party with some of its younger and more progressive members.
“A two-third majority would lead to a president with absolute political power — the greatest concentration we have seen in Sri Lanka — depleting power of the prime minister,” said Dayan Jayatilleka, Sri Lanka’s former permanent representative at the United Natioins. “The hope with a simple majority is for the functioning of a normal political system.”
Sri Lanka’s rupee was little changed at 185.49 per dollar at 2:20 a.m. local time while the benchmark Colombo All-Share Index closed up 0.6% at 5176.85 Thursday.
Fiscal Fallout
Wednesday’s vote was initially set for April 25 after President Rajapaksa called for early elections in March but was postponed twice due to health and safety concerns, resulting in an extended period when a caretaker government made policy decisions.
Shortly after his victory in November, Rajapaksa announced tax cuts and a moratorium on debt for small businesses in order to kick-start the economy battered by political turmoil since late 2018 and last year’s Easter Sunday terror attacks. The turnaround in fiscal consolidation measures however led to the expiration in June of a $1.5 billion International Monetary Fund program without completing disbursements, even as the nation had to contend with a new challenge: the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The major pressure point right now is Sri Lanka’s fiscal situation,” said Akhil Bery, South Asia analyst at risk consultancy Eurasia Group. “Investors are looking for government stability, especially after the constitutional crisis in 2018.”
“What’s most important is what the government’s plan is to get the economy back on track and how it plans to get to a sustainable fiscal situation,” Bery said.
The Rajapaksas leaned toward China during Mahinda’s decade as president which ended in 2015.-Bloomberg
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