COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s party and its allies won an overwhelming two-thirds majority in a parliament election, results released early Friday showed, giving him the power to enact sweeping changes to the constitution.
The governing Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and its allies had won 150 seats in the 225-member parliament, according to the tally published by the election commission from Wednesday’s vote.
Rajapaksa had sought a two-thirds majority in parliament to be able to restore full executive powers to the presidency, which he says are necessary to implement his agenda to make the country economically and militarily secure.
(Reporting by Arjuna Ranawana; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
