The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has taken a large lead in early results from the parliamentary elections, in an apparent solid mandate for his program for economic revival.

Sri Lanka election's early results showed the NPP, which had only three seats in the outgoing parliament, comfortably leading in almost every constituency in the 225-member house. Dissanayake took power in September's presidential elections on a promise to combat graft and recover the country's stolen assets,

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.