The ruling National People’s Power (NPP) led by President Anurakumara Dissanayake has emerged victorious at the Local Government Elections (LG), which was held last Tuesday (May6). President Anurakumara Dissanayake who was on a tour to Vietnam even returned to the country at the early hours on May 6 to cast his vote at the LG polls.

The LG polls victory of the National People’s Power (NPP) is significant in many ways and the ruling party now has a strong grip towards handling all premier institutions comfortably in the country. It was latter part of last year NPP had won the Presidential election as well as the Parliamentary elections with remarkable majority. However, there was even criticism over the NPP’s handling of political and administrative issues since December last year. Some political analysts even predicted that at the Local Government polls, the NPP would face a setback.

Whereas the NPP has emerged victorious again at the Local Government polls which was held peacefully with fewer election violence incidents. The NPP now has its overall power with an executive President along with Majority in Parliament as well as with more NPP members at the grass root level in Local Government bodies. Out of the 268 local government institutions, the NPP has secured a clear majority marking a significant electoral gain. The Local Government institutions function on the basis of looking into the infrastructure activities in the urban areas as well as in the cities.

There were even complaints over the negligence in developing the infrastructure facilities in the villages, urban areas and in the cities in the past. Corruption and malpractices in various forms were reported taking place at the Local Government bodies in the Island. Therefore the ruling NPP with its significant victories gained at the Local bodies in the Southern part of the country has to pay more attention towards improving the infrastructure facilities in the areas it has won at the LG polls. According to the Election Commission of Sri Lanka of the 17,296,330 registered voters nationwide, 17,156,338 were eligible to vote in this election. Voters had elected members to 339 of the 341 local authorities in the country, including 28 Municipal Councils, 36 Urban Councils, and 275 Pradeshiya Sabas.

The final results from Sri Lanka’s 2025 local government elections revealed a significant shift in voter sentiment across the Tamil homeland, with the ruling National People’s Power (NPP) coalition losing ground and Tamil nationalist parties making a more decisive comeback. The elections, which saw voters elect hundreds of representatives to local authorities across the North-East, reflected the erosion of the early enthusiasm that catapulted the NPP to power in 2024 among Tamil constituencies. In its place, traditional Tamil parties – especially the Iankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) – have seen a resurgence.

Nowhere was the decline in NPP support more visible than in Jaffna, where in 2024, the party had recorded a surprising victory, topping the polls with nearly 25% of the vote. Just a year later, in the 2025 local polls, the NPP vote share in the district plummeted to 20.45%, a drop of almost 5 percentage points, and almost 25,000 votes in total. In contrast, ITAK climbed from 19.47% in 2024 to 31.95% in 2025. The All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) also nearly doubled its vote share, rising from 8.6% to 18.44%, reflecting a broader swing back to explicitly Tamil nationalist platforms.
In Batticaloa, ITAK held onto its lead, recording 32.25% in 2025, down slightly from 33.78% in 2024 but still significantly ahead of other parties. The NPP, which had polled 19.33% in 2024, slipped to 18.62% this year. While the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and other Muslim parties retained influence, Tamil parties managed to consolidate further among Tamil-speaking voters.

Therefore the Local Government polls in the South would have given a remarkable victory to the ruling NPP. But the Local Government polls in the North and East have proved that the Tamil speaking voters still remain firm towards maintaining their political identity. However since the infrastructure facilities in the North and East Provinces were neglected for a long period, the newly elected LG bodies in the North and East have to go a long way towards improving the infrastructure facilities in the North and East.