Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power Party won at least 123 of the 225 seats in parliament, according to partial results released by the Elections Commission.

The NPP won 107 seats, receiving almost 62 per cent or 6.8 million votes in Thursday’s election, putting them past the majority mark in the parliament, latest results on the Election Commission of Sri Lanka‘s website showed. A two-third majority appeared within reach of the coalition.

Dissanayake, a political outsider in a country dominated by family parties for decades, comfortably won the island’s presidential election in September.

By Uditha Jayasinghe and Sudipto Ganguly COLOMBO (Reuters) -Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's leftist coalition won a thumping victory in a snap general election, gaining power to push through his plans to fight poverty in the island nation recovering from a financial meltdown.

Party of Sri Lanka's new Marxist-leaning president is leading in parliamentary elections, results show.

Sri Lanka began counting votes cast on Thursday in a snap general election that will decide if the Indian Ocean island nation will give its new leftist president greater legislative power to help the poor as it recovers from a financial meltdown.

In the first major political test for President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's NPP, Sri Lanka on Thursday headed to elect a new parliament. Back in September, the ruling party failed to secure 50 percent of the vote in the presidential elections.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's promise to hold corrupt officials accountable has fueled his public support.

Sri Lankans began voting on Thursday in a snap election to decide if the Indian Ocean island will give its new leftist president greater strength to help the poor as it recovers from a financial meltdown.