When President J R Jayewardene’s United National Party (UNP) won the 1977 parliamentary election with a 5/6th majority that paved the way for the creation of a new Constitution and an Executive Presidency, he famously boasted that the only thing he could not do with all that power was to change a man into a woman and vice versa.

Even though he exercised such power, changing the Constitution to suit his personality, and not necessarily to benefit the country, he enshrined laws, which he believed would help keep his beloved UNP in power forever.
 
The Proportional Preferential system of elections in Sri Lanka, an unwieldy, complex system is the result of “JR thought” and pundits often said that it was a “mathematical impossibility” for a single party or group to win a two-thirds majority in Parliament on its own.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has proved that wrong, garnering 145 seats on its own; an astounding achievement.

In the final weeks of campaigning, when political analysts doubted the SLPP could get the two-thirds majority, they hoped to win on their own, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa stated that even if the party does not win 150 seats, it has the allies who will help them reach that goal.

https://economynext.com/gotabaya-rajapaksa-has-been-strengthened-and-now-he-has-to-deal-with-multiple-crises-72781/