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Sri Lanka’s November 14 parliamentary election, called by new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to shore up legislative support for his policies, could set the tone for addressing the island nation’s economic and political challenges for years to come.

Nearly 17.1 million Sri Lankans are registered to vote to elect 225 MPs, 196 directly and 29 through a proportional representation system.

The snap election was called by Mr Dissanayake after he won September’s presidential election in a campaign that held the country’s traditional ruling elite responsible for the economic collapse that caused Sri Lanka to default on loans.

His National People’s Power alliance holds just three seats in the outgoing parliament, but opinion polls give him an edge over the parties that have ruled Sri Lanka since its independence in 1948.

The president is seeking to win a parliamentary majority to advance his political agenda in a country still recovering from a severe financial crisis. The crisis, driven by economic mismanagement and political instability, sparked mass protests in 2022 that forced Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign as president and flee the country.

Dissanayake has promised to abolish the executive presidency, a system of centralized power in place since 1978, tackle corruption and end the austerity regime imposed under his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe, which secured an IMF bailout for the nation but raised the cost of living .

In the last four years, the share of people living below the poverty line in Sri Lanka has increased to 25.9%. The World Bank estimates that the economy will grow by just 2.2% in 2024.

Mr Dissanayake needs his alliance to win a two-thirds majority out of 225 seats in the legislature to press ahead with his reform package.

“People have high expectations of ‘system change’, including holding politicians accountable for corruption. But there is also a major debate about the economic trajectory,” said Devaka Gunawardena, a political economist who is a research fellow at the Sri Lankan Association of Social Scientists. Al Jazeera. “The question is whether Sri Lanka can get itself out of the debt trap while protecting the livelihoods of the people who have been devastated by crisis and austerity.”

More than 8,800 candidates from 49 political parties and 284 independent groups are contesting the election, but only about 1,000 have actively campaigned, the BBC reported, citing Rohana Hettiarachchi, executive director of the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections.

Voting takes place in 13,421 polling stations with approximately 152,000 election officials and 27,000 police officers on duty.

The election is expected to bring about a generational shift in Sri Lanka as youth-focused parties such as Mr Dissanayake’s National People’s Power coalition gain ground.

Sugeeswara Senadhira, a former Sri Lankan diplomat, wrote in News Sapan that young candidates campaigned on anti-corruption, transparency and economic reform and challenged traditional political patronage systems. “The National People Power Platform emphasizes breaking away from traditional political patronage and addressing long-standing issues such as economic inequity and corruption that have dominated political discourse in Sri Lanka’s recent past.”

As Mr Dissanayake faces the task of addressing the country’s economic challenges, he will also want to ensure that citizens do not suffer further hardships.

He opposed the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund for the bailout while campaigning for the presidency, but agreed to honor the deal even as he sought to find ways to ease its harshest measures. The outcome of these elections could shape the future of the country’s recovery efforts, observers said.