Rajapaksa sweeps Lanka poll
Colombo, August 7
Mahinda Rajapaksa will be sworn in as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister for the fourth time on Sunday after his party registered a landslide victory in the general election, securing two-thirds majority in Parliament needed to amend the Constitution to further consolidate the powerful Rajapaksa family’s grip on power.
Poor show by Tamil National Alliance
The main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance, did not fare well as its parliamentary representation saw a reduction of a total of 10 seats from 16 it had won the last time.
The party managed to win three districts in the Tamil-dominated north and polled 3,27,168 votes (2.82 per cent), the results showed.
AdvertisementThe Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), despite winning only three seats from their six in the previous election, retained its position as the third force in the country.
It pushed the former ruling party UNP to the fourth and in many areas to even fifth and sixth places. The party polled 4,45,958 (3.84 per cent) of the total votes.
The Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP), led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, won in 145 constituencies, bagging a total of 150 seats with its allies, a two-thirds majority in 225-member Parliament, according to the results announced by the election commission on Friday.
It won all but four of the 22 electoral districts on offer, polling 6.8 million votes (59.9 per cent). The 74-year-old Prime Minister, Mahinda, thanked the Sri Lankan people for putting their faith in the SLPP and said the country would not stand disappointed during its tenure.
“Heartfelt gratitude to all Sri Lankans for placing their trust in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, myself and the Podujana Party and voting for the ‘Saubhagye Dakkama’ election manifesto in overwhelming numbers. We will ensure Sri Lanka will not stand disappointed during our tenure,” he said.
Mahinda will be sworn in as the new Prime Minister for the fourth time on Sunday at a ceremony at the historic Buddhist temple of Kelaniya, a north Colombo suburb, according to an official statement. He created a record in polling over 5,00,000 individual preference votes, the highest ever recorded by a candidate in the history of elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first world leaders to congratulate Mahinda on the outcome of the elections and said the two sides would work together to further advance all areas of bilateral cooperation and to take their special ties to ever newer heights. — PTI
PM Modi first to call Mahinda
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first world leaders to congratulate Mahinda on the outcome of the elections and said the two sides would work together to further advance all areas of bilateral cooperation and to take their special ties to ever newer heights.
SLPP leader tweets ‘thank you’
Mahinda Rajapaksa: Thank you PM @narendramodi for your congratulatory phone call. With the strong support of the people of #SriLanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries. Sri Lanka & India are friends & relations.
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