Sri Lankans voted in a parliamentary election Thursday that is key for the country's new, Marxist-leaning president to consolidate his party's power and follow through on promises of economic recovery.

Sri Lanka began counting votes cast on Thursday in a snap general election that will decide if the Indian Ocean island nation will give its new leftist president greater legislative power to help the poor as it recovers from a financial meltdown.

The JVP-NPP combine sweeps the Rajapaksa stronghold in the south, and the Tamil hardline areas in the north and reduces the traditional parties to a mere single-digit number in the parliament