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.

The National People's Power alliance of Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake swept to power after a snap parliamentary election in which voters handed the left-leaning alliance a landslide victory.

COLOMBO - The sweeping election win by the coalition of Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has underlined widening support for his leftist policies, but he faces the test of steering the recovery from a financial crisis with an inexperienced set of lawmakers.

Sri Lanka went to polls amid a stabilisation crisis after a currency collapse from aggressive macro-economic policy involving rate cuts enforced with aggressive liquidity operations on top of tax cuts

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's sweeping coalition election win this week underlined widening support for his leftist policies, but he faces the test of steering the nation's recovery from a financial crisis with an inexperienced set of lawmakers.

Sri Lankans are voting in a parliamentary election that’s key for their new, Marxist-leaning president to consolidate his party’s power and follow through on promises of economic recovery

The National People’s Power won a parliamentary election that will allow the country’s new president to unroll his reform agenda, including broader welfare assistance.

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 f

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s coalition won a parliamentary supermajority in the country’s election, underscoring the depth of the support for the leftist leader who pledges to combat corruption and change the terms of an unpopular International Monetary Fund bailout.