Landslide Victory for SLPP in Sri Lankan Election

Landslide Victory for SLPP in Sri Lankan Election

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksha registered a landslide victory in the 2020 parliamentary elections on 5th August  and it secured of 6,853,690 votes (59.09%).  Just nine months after his impressive win in the presidential election, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s governing party secured 145 seats in 225 member assembly.

Sri Lanka has been one of the few nations to hold an election despite the coronavirus pandemic. The vote had already been postponed twice because of the virus. However on election day, Wednesday, voter turnout defied expectations despite concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. About 71 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots. The high turnout was testament to the government’s apparent success in containing the pandemic. Only 11 deaths have been reported from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in Sri Lanka with a population of about 21.5 million.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)  expanded its majority, winning 145 of the 150 seats needed to push through expanded powers for the president and ensure that former president and Primeminister  Mahinda  Rajapaksha will continue as prime minister of Sri Lanka. The People’s Front is expected to easily form an alliance with another party to secure the extra five seats they need to declare a super majority with the power to amend the Constitution.

The nearest rival is the new party formed by former presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa who has relegated his mother party, the United National Party (UNP), of former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe to the fourth place even below the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

In the Tamil minority dominated north, the main Tamil party – Tamil National Alliance (TNA) – despite bagging a few polling divisions had also suffered unexpected reversals at the hands of SLPP’s Tamil allies – the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP).

The SLPP has secured 128 out of the total 225 seats in Sri Lankan Parliament. The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) led by former Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has obtained the second highest number of votes in the poll with 2,771,980 votes (23.90%) and won 47 parliamentary seats.

Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB) led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake secured two seats with 445,954 votes (3.84%).

The biggest casualty from the result was the United National Party (UNP) of former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The UNP managed to win only one seat and that too came thanks to the cumulative votes polled nationally. The country’s grandest political party failed to win a single seat from any of the 22 districts.

Its leader and a four-time prime minister was unseated for the first time since he entered parliament in 1977. Wickremesinghe failed to win from Colombo district as his party finished fourth in most constituencies.

The main Tamil party TNA did not fare too well as their parliamentary representation saw a reduction for a total of 10 seats from the 16 it had won the last time.

The party managed to win three districts in the Tamil-dominated North and polled 327,168 votes or 2.82 per cent, the results showed.

The Marxist JVP despite winning only 3 seats from their 6 in the previous election retained its position as the third force in the country by pushing the former ruling party UNP to the fourth and in many areas to even fifth and sixth places. They polled 445,958 or 3.84 per cent of the total vote.

 

Party              Votes               Percentage       seats    National seats             total

SLPP               6,853,690        59.09%            128                  17                            145

SJB                  2,771,980        23.90%            47                    07                             54

JJB                   445,954           3.84%              02                    01                             03

ITAK                327,168             2.82%             09                   01                             10

UNP                249,435           2.15%              00                    01                             01

AITC                67,766             0.58%              01                    00                             01

TMVP              67,692             0.58%              01                    00                             01

EPDP               61,464             0.53%              02                    00                             01