For the first time in history, the Sri Lankan communists have been able to secure a whooping 56% votes and are now able to form a leftist government in Sri Lanka.
The Jathika Vimukti Peramuna was found in 1956, with a strong affiliation for Maoism. They created cells throughout the country, educating the working class on Marxist theories before launching an insurrection in 1971, and then again in 1987. Though both of them failed in the long run, they managed to create significant ideological impact.
In 1987, the party faced an ideological change where they broke away from Mao Zedong Thought and instead gained allegiance from the Soviet Union. They decided to participate in electoral processes which gained them a more positive attention from the general public.
JVP went through a series of successive state repressions, to the point of being almost completely wiped out. It was eventually resurrected by Amerasinghe in 1999. From that point on the JVP slowly built up its base again, while facing sudden internal strife between social democratic thoughts and hardcore socialist outlook.
The party remained active throughout the economic crisis of Sri Lanka, and its activities has eventually born fruit.
The new president of Sri Lanka is Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of JVP.
This is great! Now i really want to learn more about the situation in Sri Lanka, like actually in detail how they managed it, what their exact positions are and how they plan to govern. Fascinating stuff.
I was out of the loop on the situation as well. Some totally unexpected feel good news.