(14 Nov 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Colombo – 14 November 2024
1. Various of sign showing way to polling station
2. Various of voters coming to cast their votes
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Thanuja Danangoda, banker:
“As citizens, we like to work in a digitized environment, right? We like to have a government where they enable that and they make sure to give, provide the development in that areas."
4. Various of voters coming to cast their votes
5. Man reading newspaper
6. Close-up of newspaper
7. SOUNDBITE (Sinhala) Bandula Mallika Aarachchi, retired worker:
“We hope that the new election will lead to building a country where people can live well.”
8. Various of voters arriving to cast their votes
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohan Dimal, 76-year-old voter:
“(I would like to see a country) where there is no corruption and the people who are supposed to do their work do the work that they are supposed to do. And everyone is friendly with every other religions, person or racial.”
10. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake leaving polling station after voting
11. Media surrounding Dissanayake
12. SOUNDBITE (Sinhala) Anura Kumara Dissanayake, President of Sri Lanka:
“This is an election that shows a decisive turning point. In this election, the National People’s Power expects a mandate for a strong government and we believe that the people will give us this mandate.”
13. Dissanayake talking to people, posing for photo
STORYLINE:
Sri Lankans are voting in a parliamentary election Thursday that is key for the country’s new, Marxist-leaning president to consolidate his party’s power and follow through on promises of economic recovery.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidential election on Sept. 21 in a victory that marked a rejection of the traditional political parties, which have governed the island nation since its independence from British rule in 1948.
However, Dissanayake’s failure to secure more than 50% of the vote has fueled concerns over his party’s outlook in Thursday’s election.
His National People’s Power party must increase its votes significantly — from the 42% it won in the presidential election — if it is to acquire a minimum of 113 seats to take control of the 225-member Parliament.
“In this election, the National People’s Power expects a mandate for a strong government and we believe that the people will give us this mandate,” Dissanayake told journalists on Thursday after voting.
The biggest challenge for the NPP — which was founded in 2019 and is a relative newcomer on Sri Lanka’s political scene — is that many of its candidates are new faces in politics running against well-established politicians from the traditional parties.
Of the 225 parliament seats, 196 are up for grabs under Sri Lanka’s proportional representative electoral system, which allocates seats in each district among the parties according to the proportion of the votes they get.
The remaining 29 seats — called the national list seats — are allocated to parties and independent groups according to the proportion of the total votes they receive countrywide.
There are 8,821 candidates vying for the 196 seats for elected members of Parliament.
Sajith Premadasa, who came in second in the presidential election and his Samagi Jana Balawegaya, or United People’s Power party, is NPP’s main competition.
Dissanayake, while campaigning for his party’s candidates, has called on voters to help elect them to Parliament so he won’t need to rely on a coalition to enact the reforms he promised.
Election results are expected on Friday.
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