Sri Lanka ruling party wins local elections

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka´s leftist government won local council elections but with significantly lower margins, in its first test since sweeping national polls last year, official results showed on Wednesday.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake´s coalition received the most votes in 265 out of the 339 councils, but fell short of an outright majority in about half of them. The main opposition SJB won just 14 councils, while the country´s main minority Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, performed better, winning 35.

The parties of former presidents Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa failed to win control of a single council, but between them secured 1,123 of the 8,299 council seats. The leftist NPP will need the support of other parties to control about 130 councils where it fell short of an absolute majority, but has ruled out any coalition with traditional parties.

Dissanayake´s NPP vote share fell to 43.3 percent, down from the 61.6 percent it secured at the November parliamentary election. The main opposition SJB made a marginal gain, reaching 21.7 percent, up from 17.70 percent.

Dissanayake, who upset the more established parties to win the September presidential election, built on his popularity to secure the parliamentary vote held two months later. The 56-year-old has made a U-turn since coming to power on his pledge to renegotiate the terms of an unpopular IMF bailout agreed by his predecessor, and has maintained high tariffs.