By Jehan Perera-August 24, 2015,

At
the presidential elections held in January this year Sri Lanka made its
initial transition away from authoritarian rule in which ethnic
nationalism was utilised to deliver repeated electoral mandates. The
victory of the coalition of parties led by Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe at the General Elections on August 17 will ensure that
the changes brought about at the presidential election will be
sustained. The majority of Sri Lankan voters reaffirmed the choice they
had made in January when they voted in President Maithripala Sirisena
and rejected the siren call of narrow ethnic-based nationalism. The main
significance of the latest election verdict is that it paves the way
for transition to take place in two key aspects of governance. The first
is that will consolidate the changes that have taken arbitrary power
away from individuals and vested them instead in systems.