Two Years On: What the NPP Promised, and What the Record Shows

In November 2024 the National People’s Power won 61.56% of the national vote, the largest share in Sri Lankan electoral history, and a two-thirds majority in Parliament. That mandate came with a detailed manifesto. Two years later, it is fair to hold the government to its own words.

This is not a list of everything the government has done. It has stabilised public finances and can point to real economic numbers. But a mandate is a contract, and several of its central clauses remain unmet.

The record so far

A smaller Cabinet. The NPP promised to limit the Cabinet to 25 ministers and deputy ministers. A March 2026 report by the election monitor PAFFREL and the March 12 Movement, described in The Morning, found that the pledge had been undermined by the appointment of a larger number of deputy ministers.

Ending the executive presidency. Abolishing the all-powerful executive presidency was one of the oldest demands of the JVP itself. The same report found the pledge untouched. Opposition MPs have accused the government of quietly forgetting it; no timetable has been published.

Provincial council elections within a year. The deadline passed in September 2025. JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said in May 2026 that the polls could not be held this year.

Reform laws. In a recent budget debate, SJB MP Ajith P. Perera said in Parliament that not one of the 11 key reform bills the President had pledged to pass within the year had been approved, The Island reported. That is an opposition claim; the government has not published its own list showing which bills were passed.

Lower bills. Electricity tariffs rose by about 11% in March 2026, and a further 1.46% increase is now proposed. VAT remains at 18%.

The President’s own verdict

Perhaps the most telling assessment came from President Dissanayake himself. Speaking in Colombo at the end of October, he said Sri Lanka had not yet achieved the economic and social transformation people voted for, and that the first two years had been spent laying foundations, the Daily FT reported.

That candour is welcome. But voters were not promised foundations. They were promised system change: a smaller, cleaner, more accountable state that would face the people regularly. On the measures that are fully within the government’s control — the size of the Cabinet, the date of an election, the introduction of a constitutional amendment — the obstacle is not the IMF or a cyclone. It is political will.