LEN - www.lankaenews.com | 'Anurella' ; From 3% to 51%: How the NPP Rewrote Sri Lanka’s Political History..! -(Final Part)

'Anurella' ; From 3% to 51%: How the NPP Rewrote Sri Lanka’s Political History..! -(Final Part)

-By LeN Political Correspondent - (for the first anniversary of 'Anurella')

(Lanka-e-News - 20.Sep.2025, 11.30 PM)

The Rise of Anura Kumara and the NPP Presidency

On 14 September 2024, as Sri Lanka’s presidential campaign entered its feverish final week, few could have predicted the scale of what was to come. Asked by a sceptical journalist how a party with barely 3% of the national vote in past elections could possibly reach the 50% threshold required to win the presidency, Anura Kumara, the little-known candidate of the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, smiled and replied with characteristic defiance:

“The majority are ready. This time, people will vote not for clowns who change parties week by week, but for a movement determined to change Sri Lanka’s history. We will bring justice where others have protected corruption.”

Those words, spoken against a backdrop of scepticism and even ridicule, proved prophetic. Seven days later, on 21 September 2024, Anura Kumar crossed the magic number. The NPP, long dismissed as an eccentric coalition led by the JVP left wings, captured more than half of the popular vote and claimed Sri Lanka’s presidency outright.

Twelve months on, his administration has begun to deliver on its promises: reforming the justice system, empowering an independent Bribery Commission, and allowing the Attorney General’s Department to file long-delayed cases against some of the most entrenched political elites. But the central question remains: how did a political force so derided as marginal transform itself into the decisive majority?

From Fringe to Frontline

For decades, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the Marxist party at the heart of the NPP coalition, was defined more by its insurgent past than its electoral presence. At general elections, its support stubbornly hovered around 2–10%. Political analysts saw the JVP as disciplined but electorally irrelevant, a permanent protest party whose history of rebellion overshadowed its parliamentary ambitions.

The creation of the National People’s Power (NPP) in 2019 seemed, at first, another desperate rebranding. Comprised of 21 organisations – from trade unions and student groups to professionals’ associations – the NPP was marketed as a broad national front. Yet the mainstream political class dismissed it as “the same JVP in a new shirt.”

The turning point was not in the corridors of Parliament but in the crumbling homes of ordinary Sri Lankans. By 2022, as the country’s economy collapsed, queues for fuel and cooking gas stretched for miles. Hospitals ran out of medicine. Schools struggled to provide even basic materials. Unemployment soared. The government turned, once again, to the IMF, imposing austerity measures that hurt the very families already on their knees.

In this atmosphere of despair, NPP’s message of integrity and justice began to resonate. While the Rajapaksas, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Sajith Premadasa were all tainted by either corruption or complicity, the JVP/NPP carried one priceless credential: they were not corrupt.

The Power of Hope

When Anura Kumara took the stage at rallies in Anuradhapura, Pannala, Mirigama, and Kuliyapitiya in 14 th September 2024, his rhetoric was simple but potent. He did not promise miracles. Instead, he promised something Sri Lankans had been denied for decades: political will.

“There are laws in Sri Lanka,” he said at one rally, “but no political will to use them against the corrupt. We will change that.”

In a nation where grand promises have become political theatre, this blunt message cut through. It was reinforced by the NPP’s election manifesto, which spoke not only to macroeconomics but to daily life: medicine in hospitals, books for schoolchildren, jobs for the unemployed, stability for families.

That manifesto was not just a document—it was hand-delivered, discussed, and debated in homes across the island. NPP volunteers went door-to-door, sometimes visiting the same household two or three times. They were armed not with money or patronage but with arguments, a grassroots campaign unmatched in its intensity.

Slowly, a movement built. The Muslim minority, historically marginalised and politically fragmented, were among the first to rally behind the NPP. Tamils, long sceptical of Sinhala-majority parties, followed suit, sensing sincerity in a platform that did not pretend to solve everything but offered inclusion. And then came the majority Sinhala voters, weary of betrayal and eager for a clean break.

The coalition that emerged was unprecedented: minorities, professionals, rural poor, disillusioned youth, and middle-class families—all coalescing around a single idea of hope.

Crunching the Numbers: From 3% to 51%

The rise from 3% to 51% was not accidental; it was engineered with discipline.

Grassroots Machinery – NPP’s army of volunteers functioned like no other campaign in Sri Lankan history. Without the funds of traditional parties, they relied on personal commitment, systematically covering towns and villages with their message.
Credibility Gap – Opponents of the NPP, even while attacking its ideology, often conceded that its leadership was not corrupt. In a bankrupt nation, this singular factor carried more weight than ideology.
Women’s Vote – For the first time, women voters played a decisive role, seeing in NPP’s message of justice and social welfare a defence of their families’ survival.
Diaspora Influence – Millions of Sri Lankans abroad, though unable to vote directly, amplified the NPP’s message through social media, financial support, and pressure on relatives at home.
Timing – The collapse of the Rajapaksa dynasty, the paralysis of Wickremesinghe’s interim government, and Sajith Premadasa’s political party failure to inspire created a vacuum. Into that vacuum stepped Anura Kumara with clarity and defiance.

When polling day came, the result was not merely an electoral victory—it was a repudiation of Sri Lanka’s entire post-independence political class.

The International Shock

The international community, from diplomats in Colombo to think tankers in Washington and New Delhi, were left dumbfounded. For years, they had cultivated relationships with the old political elite. Few had taken the NPP seriously, dismissing it as “populist” or “radical.”

Yet within days of the result, embassies scrambled to schedule meetings with the new president. Analysts in foreign capitals began publishing papers on “the NPP phenomenon,” drawing comparisons with Syriza in Greece or Podemos in Spain. But the more apt comparison, perhaps, was with Latin American reformist movements: rooted in social justice, born of crisis, and propelled by an electorate that had simply had enough.

Governing Reality

One year into his presidency, Anura Kumara has had to prove that rhetoric can be translated into governance. To his credit, some early steps have been decisive. The Attorney General’s office has been given full authority to pursue corruption cases. The Bribery Commission has been restructured into an efficient watchdog.

Symbolically, this mattered. For decades, commissions were created only to protect the powerful. For the first time, powerful families and businessmen found themselves summoned by courts.

But challenges remain. The economy is still fragile, IMF conditions are biting, and Household income remains fractured. Yet for ordinary Sri Lankans, what matters is that promises made on 14 September 2024 by President Anura Kumara are being honoured in 2025.

Why the People Believed

The NPP’s victory cannot be explained by strategy alone. It rests on a deeper truth: in a bankrupt nation, people wanted someone untainted.

Every major party had governed Sri Lanka into ruin. The SLFP, UNP, and SLPP had all borrowed recklessly, squandered resources, and presided over corruption. The result was queues, shortages, and despair.

By contrast, the NPP carried no baggage. It was untested, yes—but precisely because it was untested, it was trusted. People preferred the risk of the unknown to the certainty of failure.

Conclusion: A Political Earthquake

Sri Lanka has long been a land of political dynasties and recycled faces. The rise of Anura Kumara shattered that mould. From a 3% protest vote to a 51% mandate, the NPP did what few thought possible: it turned moral credibility into political capital.

This was not just an election result—it was a rewriting of political history. For the first time, a party long mocked as marginal became the vessel of national hope.

As Sri Lanka continues to grapple with its crises, the story of 2024–25 will be remembered for one truth: the people, battered and betrayed, chose integrity over corruption, and in doing so, turned 3% into victory.

-By LeN Political Correspondent