Sri Lanka: Economic crisis, political change, and reconciliation | Interview with Ahilan Kadirgamar

The sociology professor at Jaffna University and veteran human rights activist analyses Sri Lanka’s pivotal moment ahead of parliamentary elections.

On November 14, 2024, Sri Lankans began voting in the snap parliamentary election, the first major test of the ruling National People’s Power party led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The voting is taking place at over 13,314 polling stations across the country. The voting started at 7 a.m. and will continue until 4 p.m. local time. The counting will start soon after the polls close.

Having failed to secure 50 per cent of the vote at the September 21 presidential election, Mr. Dissanayake is pleading for a stronger parliament with well over a simple majority of 113 seats to implement his anti-corruption accountability reformist programme. This will be the first parliamentary election since Sri Lanka plunged into an economic crisis when the island nation declared sovereign default in mid-April of 2022, its first since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. Almost civil-war-like conditions and months of public protests led to the fleeing of the then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Amit Baruah is a former diplomatic correspondent of The Hindu and foreign editor of Hindustan Times. He has reported from Delhi, Colombo, Islamabad, and Southeast Asia.