The election results released throughout yesterday saw the SLPP securing a landslide victory winning a greater majority of the electorates at the 2020 general election that concluded on Wednesday (5).
The SLPP obtained 6,853,693 votes amounting to 59.09 % of the total votes in the country. The SLPP secured a total of 145 seats.
The splinter group of the United National Party(UNP), the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) led by former Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, performed much better than the UNP and obtained 2,771,984 votes amounting to 23.90 % of the total votes in the country.
The SJB secured 54 seats.
The one-time largest party in the country, the UNP led by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, was defeat at the 2020 general election. The UNP obtained 249435 votes, a mere 2.15% of the total votes in the country. The Party was able to obtain only a National List seat.
The Party was even defeated in its power base of Colombo.
The Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB) was able to obtain only 445,958 amounting to 3.84 % of total votes in the country. JJB was able to secure only 3 seats,one of them being a National List seat.
Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) which ranked third in the polls obtained 09 seats and 01 National List seat. Accordingly, the party is entitled to 10 seats in the parliament.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meanwhile has congratulated his Sri Lankan counterpart Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on the clear mandate at the parliamentary polls.
Posting a message on Twitter, Rajapaksa had thanked the Indian Premier for his congratulatory call last evening (6).
Rajapaksa has said that he looks forward to working closely with Modi to further enhance the long-standing co-operation between the two countries.
Prime Minister Rajapaksa further said that Sri Lanka and India are both “friends and relations”.
PM Rajapaksa’s tweet read: “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.”