Event reports
Background: In 2024, Sri Lanka faced two major national elections, the first since the mass street protests that led to the ousting of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022. In September 2024, Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People’s Power (NPP) won the presidential election. The parliament was dissolved shortly after, and snap general elections were held on 14 November 2024. The NPP won a historic super majority, securing 159 seats of the 225-member parliament.
On 26 November 2024, ISAS and KAS held a hybrid roundtable workshop at the NUSS Guild House, Singapore, on Sri Lanka’s 2024 elections, focusing on the challenges faced by the government. Dr Iqbal Singh Sevea, Director of ISAS delivered the opening remarks for the event.
This was followed by presentations of the speakers and moderated discussion sessions afterwards with inputs of selected participants (online and in-person) for each of the sessions. The invited participants were those with a keen interest and expertise in the subject matter and included academics, former policymakers, legal practitioners, political actors, and other key civil society representatives.
The first session focused on the 2024 Sri Lankan elections, exploring the NPP’s electoral success and the country's subsequent economic and political challenges. Despite winning a supermajority, the NPP grapples with significant economic distress, including debt management, inflation, and social discontent. The session also examined the political shifts resulting from the 2022 protests, leading to the fragmentation of traditional party lines and a rise in new political coalitions. The speakers physically present were Mr Murtaza Jafferjee (Chair of the Advocata Institute) who spoke on the macroeconomic situation in Sri Lanka; Dr Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri (Senior Lecturer, Department of History) who discussed the state of ideological politics in Sri Lanka, Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa (Former Research Director, The Disinformation Project, New Zealand) who analysed the social media trends during elections this year, and Mr S CC Elankovan (Lawyer) who spoke about shifts in Tamil politics in the North and East. The fifth speaker, Dr Nimendra Mawalagedara (Political Scientist, Georgia State University), joined the session via Zoom, and discussed geopolitical trends and security challenges for the NPP government. Dr Ronojoy Sen, Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead (Politics, Society and Governance) at the Institute of South Asian Studies, moderated this session. The moderators for all sessions were physically present for the workshop.
The second session delved into Sri Lanka's constitutional reform, discussing the need to abolish the executive presidency to promote accountability. It also highlighted the challenges of the IMF program, focusing on austerity measures and economic recovery. The economic analysis emphasised the tension between fiscal discipline and social welfare, with the need for a new social contract and taxation and wealth distribution reforms to address ongoing socio-economic disparities. Together, both sessions presented a comprehensive view of Sri Lanka’s political economy, marked by the intersection of domestic reforms and international financial obligations. The speakers physically present were Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu (Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives) who spoke about the NPP’s mandate of constitutional reforms and implications on reconciliation, Dr Devaka Gunawardena (Research Fellow, Social Scientist’s Association) who discussed the political economy of the NPP’s mandate and the impact and poverty and social welfare, Ms Ermiza Tegal (Attorney and Human Rights Activist) who briefed on the key challenges and prospects for human rights in Sri Lanka, and Mr Harindra B. Dassanayake (Independent Policy Analyst) who outlined the key policy priorities and challenges for the new NPP government. The fifth speaker, Dr Pradeep Pieris (Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo) joined the session via Zoom, and shared his analysis on the future of the political party system and patronage politics in Sri Lanka.
Dr Rajni Gamage, Postdoctoral Fellow, ISAS, moderated the session and discussed the way forward. The workshop ended with the closing remarks, which were delivered by Mr Andreas Michael Klein, Director of Political Dialogue Asia, KAS Singapore.
The workshop proceedings will be published as a Special Report by end-February 2025. This will be widely disseminated for relevant minister, ministry representatives and the research institutes. It will also be avaible for public consumption
