But with a lower vote bank
UNP fares no better
The SLFP-led UPFA comfortably secured both Western and Southern Provincial Councils at Saturday’s elections, though the UNP won several electorates in the Colombo District, namely, Colombo North, Colombo Central, Borella, Colombo East and Colombo West.
The UNP’s only gain outside Colombo was the Galle electorate, where it obtained 19,348 votes (39.62%) while the UPFA came a close second by obtaining 18,611 votes (38.11%). The UPFA won Galle electorate at the last SPC poll held in October 2009.
Except those six electorates, the UPFA won all 51 electorates in the Southern and Western Provinces.
The ruling coalition polled 699,408 votes (58.06 %) to secure 33 seats including two bonus slots in the SPC, while the UNP obtained 310,431 votes (25.77 %) to get 14 seats.The JVP and the Democratic Party (DP) led by General Sarath Fonseka polled 109,032 (9.05 per cent) and 75, 532 (6.27 %) to secure five and three seats, respectively.
The UPFA constituent, the SLMC which contested the SPC on its own managed to secure 1,119 votes (0.12 %), hence failed to win a single seat.
At the previous SPC polls in October 2009, the UPFA obtained 38 seats, including two bonus slots while the UNP and the JVP obtained 14 and three seats, respectively.
The JVP with two seats in addition to the three it had at the last council and the DP with three seats made electoral gains at the expense of the UPFA.
In spite of the UNP winning five electorates, the UPFA polled 1,363,675 (53.35%) to take 56 seats including two bonus slots in the WPC. The UNP obtained 679,682 (26.59%) to win 28 seats, while the DP pushed the JVP to the fourth position by polling 203,767 votes (7.97%) to secure nine seats in the WPC. The JVP polled 156,208 (6.11%) to get six seats. The remaining five seats were shared by the Democratic People’s Front (DPF), which won two seats, the SLMC 2 and All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) 1. The ACMC led by Minister Rishad Bathiudeen is also a constituent of the UPFA.
The five-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) backed the DPF in the Western Province.
DP General Secretary Ananda Manawadu yesterday told The Island that the party was quite happy with its performance at Saturday’s polls. Responding to queries, Manawadu said that the DP could have done better if the ruling party hadn’t interfered with its campaign particularly in the districts of Colombo and Hambantota. Manawadu alleged that the government had targeted the DP in spite of repeated complaints to the Election Secretariat. In fact, the government had allowed the UNP as well as the JVP to go ahead with their campaigns while obstructing DP candidates, Manawadu said. Asked whether a propaganda campaign directed against General Fonseka had caused a setback to the DP, Manawadu said that people had faith in the former Army Chief. In spite of government propaganda, the DP had done extremely well in the Western Province, he said, the result would give a tremendous boost to the new party, he added.
Having exercised his franchise at a polling booth at Piliyandala, General Fonseka declared that it was his first time he had been to a polling both.
Source: The Island (Sri Lanka)
