Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s coalition, the National People’s Power (NPP), was set to win a majority in a snap general election, results from the Indian Ocean island’s poll body showed on Friday. Dissanayake, who won the presidential election in September, is seeking a mandate for his policies aimed at alleviating distress among the poor in a country struggling to emerge from a severe financial crisis. Marxist-leaning Dissanayake’s coalition had just three of parliament’s 225 seats before Thursday’s election, prompting him to dissolve it and seek a fresh mandate. NPP won 52 seats, receiving almost 62% or 5.4 million votes in Thursday’s election, putting them on course for a majority in the parliament, latest results on the Election Commission of Sri Lanka’s website showed. “We see this as a critical turning point for Sri Lanka. We expect a mandate to form a strong parliament, and we are confident the people will give us this mandate,” Dissanayake said after casting his vote on Thursday. “There is a change in Sri Lanka’s political culture that started …