4th annex
This statement is related to the 3rd annex on the election, published on 5th of May 2025, on the Asiacommune.orgwebsite.
Excerpt – The statement of the Asia Commune regarding the local government election scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka on 6thof May 2025 (Published date – 5th of May 2025
| A significant portion of the people who had largely granted a two-thirds majority to the National People’s Power (NPP) is expected to abstain from voting in this Provincial Council Election. According to information received by the Asia Commune, more than 40% of eligible voters are likely to refrain from casting their votes. The primary reason for this is the growing disillusionment of these people and the perceived failure of the NPP government, which came to power as a new political force. |
The Provincial Council Election has concluded. Just as the Central Commune Committee of Sri Lanka had predicted, public confidence in the electoral process has collapsed. Altogetherover 6.5 million registered voters either invalidated their votes or abstained from voting. Compared to the 2024 parliamentary election, the National People’s Power (NPP) has lost 2,359,256 votes. This decline did not occur in isolation.
There were several key factors contributed to the two-thirds parliamentary majority granted to the NPP in 2024.
- By 2022, Sri Lanka had been driven into economic bankruptcy by the corrupt rulers of Rajapaksa, Wickremesinghe and Sirisena. The public demanded that they be punished according to the law.
- In 2022, millions of people took to the streets demanding revolutionary change in society and ousting the corrupt Rajapaksa regime.The aspiration of this radical public was to initiate a fundamental transformation of the deeply corrupt and unjust capitalist system. Unfortunately, as in many other countries, there was no an organized revolutionary force with a clear vision to carry this change forward.
At the end, the hopes of these brave people were blocked within the constitutional framework.Parliament is a so-called instrument of the bourgeois system of governance. Through its majority power a ruler who rejected by the people became Prime Minister and then President.To the ears of the enraged people, the NPP sang like a sweet tune;“We will come to power through the vote and change the system”.
Accordingly,
The presidential election held on 21st of September 2024 and the parliamentary election held on 13th of November 2024, the people granted the National People’s Power (NPP) the maximum power with a two-thirds majority.
- Another critical factor was the promise to uphold the rule of law, ensure the independence of the police to enforce law and peace, eliminate the rice mafia while reviving small-scale paddy farmers, and to bring drug trafficking and underworld crime under legal control.
- Also the people expected the resolution of specific issues faced by the Tamil and Muslim communities in the North, East, and Hill country. With these aspirations in mind, Tamil and Muslim voters granted the NPP a clean and strong mandate to work without obstruction, empowering it with a two-thirds majority.
- In particular, the Tamil people hoped for the prosecution of all parties involved in war crimes during the 2009 conflict.
- To strengthen democracy, there was an expectation to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
- There was also a strong determination to renegotiate the IMF debt restructuring agreement made by the Rajapaksa and RanilWickramasinghe regime.
By the date of the Local government election on 6th May 2025, there were seven months had passed since the NPP received this vast mandate. Yet, the NPP government failed to fulfill even a single one of these people’s expectations. At least, NPP did not pass a few progressive laws using its two-thirds parliamentary power, even within the existing capitalist constitutional framework.From14th May 1965, to 14th May 2025, sixty long years,the people were gently lulled caressed by soft, empty promises and deceived by subtle manipulations. Then, within just seven months of seizing power, the National People’s Power (NPP) government, entrusted with a two-thirds mandate by a courageous populace, began to wither like a vanishing dream. Instead of progress, it resorted to illusion showing mirages, stalling in place, and wasting time, betraying the very hope that lifted it to power.
The painful outcome is that some electoral support has returned to the same corrupt and nationalist forces that the people had ousted through the uprising three years ago. Even the so-called “leftist” groups, dressed in red and contesting under the name of socialism despite being thoroughly discredited failed to secure even 2%–3% of the votes from this disillusioned public.
As previously stated by the Asia Commune in earlier elections, leftist parties and groups that only motivate to act during the election seasons are already vanished from even the election landscape. According to available information, the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), operating under the name “People’s Struggle Alliance”, contested in around 150 local authorities and won 16 local council seats. Although this is a small victory, one could argue it is a considerable start.
However, a few days after the election concluded, the Frontline Socialist Party held a media briefing. At this event, Kumar Gunaratnam, a key leader of the party, stated that the decency of so-called capitalists electoral politics. Wepresent his video clip (Sinhala) below.
Video clip
The views expressed by him at that media briefing are fake and hypocritical . Through these remarks, he is, in effect, inviting the lower petty-bourgeois faction within the JanathaVimukthiPeramuna (JVP). That is our position. Nevertheless, the bankruptcy of the ideas he presents must be exposed. During the briefing, he claimed: ‘If we are to speak in terms of political ethics, it is the National People’s Power (NPP) that holds the rightful claim to power in the majority of councils.’But in 223 out of the total 339 local governments, the National People’s Party (NPP) does not have more than 50% of the power. This implies that it will be very difficult for the National People’s Party (NPP) to maintain power in these institutions.
In the face of this harsh reality, leftist revolutionaries must present their positions with courage and bravely.Yet, instead of doing so, Kumar Gunaratnam and the leadership of the Frontline Socialist Party express fear that the corrupt rulers once rejected by the people might regain power.Thus, the re-emergence of those corrupt forces within just seven months has been facilitated by the regressive inertia of the government led by the National People’s Power (NPP), the current manifestation of the JanathaVimukthiPeramuna.
Without proposing any practical alternative, they merely call for excite from the IMF’s framework, echoing empty slogans. At the same time, they use new terminology to stir up anti-Indian sentiment,
Likewise, the JanathaVimukthiPeramuna (JVP) has been generating anti-Indian sentiment by using new terminology to describe Indian expansionism.
Merely claiming in media discussions that there exists an alternative solution to the national question while cunningly concealing the people’s right to self-governance and self-determination amounts to the JanathaVimukthiPeramuna’s second innings of ruthless communism playing out as political theatre.
Today, it is absolutely necessary to propose practically a political, social, and economic alternative to global capitalism. This responsibility must be undertaken by all of us at national, regional, and international levels.
Furthermore, the leftist parliamentary paths inspired by SYRIZA in Greece in 2015 or by PODEMOS in Spain in 2014 are no longer applicable in context.
| “Workers across every corner of the world, burdened by debt and threatened by the specter of war, must unite on a regional and international level to collectively reject the repayment of debts imposed by international financial institutions.Instead, we must theoretically and practically work toward building a revolutionary public consensus that demands the establishment of a new, long-lasting social, economic, financial, and banking system.To instead propose debt audits or debt restructuring based on the instruments and frameworks of the capitalist institutional system is a regressive step one that evades the search for a real solution to the problem. Likewise, on the other hand, it is nothing more than an empty war of words, meant to conceal the fact that they have no real solutions.” |
The challenge we face is to defeat the oppressive threat posed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) against countries bankrupted by global debt.To archive this, the solution must come from the unification of working-class forces scattered across every corner of the world. For that, the experimental, theoretical, and practical process of regional and international revolutionary coordination must be built under the leadership of a working class that actively operates as the political center.The Frontline Socialist Party, contesting this election under the name Jana AragalaSandhanaya (People’s Struggle Alliance), as well as the other pseudo-left parties, have not presented such a revolutionary program.No matter how bitter it may be, we shall bring this truth to society.This must be done precisely because the present moment offers the greatest opportunity.For over half a century, leftist parties have limited themselves to demonstrations, protests, and merely contesting election after election. If that is the case then what is it that we must do?
Another decisive aspect of this election result is the stance taken by the Tamil and Muslim communities of the North, East, and Hill Country. These communities have overwhelmingly rejected the Malima government.
From November 14, 2024, to May 6, 2025, we witnessed the collapse of the National People’s Power (NPP) government.
Northern and Eastern Provinces
| District | Political party | 2024 Parliamentaryelection | 2025 Local governementelection | ||
| Vote count | percentage | Vote count | percentage | ||
| Jaffna | Natioanalpeople’s party (NPP) | 80,830 | 24.85 % | 56,615 | 20.43% |
| Ilankai Tamil ArasuKadchi | 63,327 | 19.41% | 88,443 | 31.95% | |
| Batticaloa | Natioanalpeople’s party (NPP) | 55,496 | 19.33% | 53,002 | 18.62% |
| Ilankai Tamil ArasuKadchi | 96,975 | 33.18% | 97,818 | 32.25% | |
| Trincomalee | Natioanalpeople’s party (NPP) | 87,031 | 42.48% | 52,569 | 24.34% |
| Samagi Jana Balawegaya | 53,058 | 25.90% | 34,328 | 15.89% | |
| Ilankai Tamil ArasuKadchi | 34,168 | 16.68% | 31,394 | 14.53% | |
| Mannar Mullaitivu Vavuniya | Natioanalpeople’s party (NPP) | 39,894 | 20.37% | 41651 | 22.17% |
| Samagi Jana Balawegaya | 32,232 | 16.45% | 29107 | 15.48% | |
| Ilankai Tamil ArasuKadchi | 29,711 | 15.17% | 44521 | 23.71% | |
| Ampara | Natioanalpeople’s party (NPP) | 146,313 | 40.32% | 92579 | 29.24% |
| Sri Lanka MuslimCongress | 46,899 | 12.92% | 39454 | 12.46% | |
| All CeylonMakkalCongress | 33,911 | 9.34% | 32684 | 10.32% | |
| Ilankai Tamil ArasuKadchi | 33,632 | 9.27% | 22308 | 7.05% | |
Nuwaraeliya District
| District | Political party | 2024 Parliamentaryelection | 2025 Local governementelection | ||
| Vote count | percentage | Vote count | percentage | ||
| Nuwaraeliya | Natioanalpeople’s party (NPP) | 161,167 | 41.57% | 133,391 | 35.59% |
| Samagi Jana Balawegaya | 101,589 | 26.21% | 101,085 | 26.97% | |
| CeylonWorker’sCongress | – | – | 55,241 | 14.74% | |
| United National Party(UNP) | 64,672 | 16.68% | 20,387 | 5.44% | |
The Central Commune Committee( Sri Lanka )
It is absolutely true that we are addressing you as the Central Commune Committee of Sri Lanka on behalf of the Asia Commune. The leftist movement, both globally and in Sri Lanka, has suffered a significant decline.Dear comrades of the Left, from 1935 to the present day, leftist parties have collapsed to the point of insignificance.The reason for this decline lies in the long-term abandonment of class struggle, the neglect of regional working-class unity, and the failure to build a unified international revolutionary workers’ party. Instead, the left has engaged in class collaborationist politics, become trapped in the electoral mechanisms of capitalism, served as subordinates in populist coalitions and alliances, followed non-Marxist reformist paths, and ultimately become victims of unaccountable imperialist agents operating through NGOs.
On the other hand, electoral alliances formed solely with the aim of contesting elections, even when they achieve modest victories, often result in the stronger party overpowering the weaker one. This has led to growing disillusionment among the working people toward the left movement, and their continued alienation from such movements over time.
Asia Commune emphasizes with seriously that, rather than focusing on organizing for the next election, efforts should now be directed toward building a new political organization one capable of uniting not only the Indian working class but also the broader masses of South Asia.
We appeal for a critical questioning of political movements that attempt to divert class struggle by emphasizing electoral alliances, petty bourgeois leadership, anti-Indian rhetoric, and mere protests.
If you are ready to take up the fight for an alternative, we warmly invite you to join us in solidarity with the Central Commune Committee of Sri Lanka!
In comradely
Our website – asiacommune.org
Email – asiacommune22@dammika
revolutionaryfrontsouthasia@gmail.com