Sri Lankan ruling alliance wins parliamentary election
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Having bagged more than half seats of the 225-member parliament, Sri Lanka's ruling alliance United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has won the first post-civil war parliamentary election held Thursday without the presence of Tamil Tiger rebels, statistics from the Department of Elections showed on Friday.
According to the statistics issued as of 6 p.m. local time ( 1230 GMT), the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance has bagged 117 seats by winning 60.43 percent or 4.79 million votes. The main opposition United National Party was trailing behind with 46 seats or 2.34 million votes (29.43 percent).
The pro-Tamil Tiger rebels party the Tamil National Alliance has got 12 seats by winning over 212,590 votes or 2.68 percent of the total, mainly from the north and east which had been under the control of the rebels for decades.
The Democratic National Alliance led by the detained former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka had managed to get five seats with 439,601 votes or 5.54 percent of the total.
A total of 14,088,500 people were eligible to vote on Thursday to elect 225 members of parliament from 7,620 candidates of 36 political parties and 301 independent groups.
The UPFA had campaigned for a mandate with a two-thirds majority to introduce long awaited constitutional and electoral reforms and to make Sri Lanka the economic miracle in South Asia in the next six years.
The opposition parties had been focused on preventing the government returning to power with a two-thirds majority, saying they want a change of government to restore law and order, democracy and good governance allegedly missing under the present administration.
At the 2004 parliamentary elections, the UPFA secured 105 seats, while the UNP secured 82. They were followed by the TNA (22 seats), the monk party JHU (National Heritage Party, nine seats), the main Muslim party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (five seats), Up Country People's Front (representing Tamil labors in the hilly tea estate, one seat) and the pro-government Tamil party Eelam People's Democratic Party (one seat).
The new parliament is expected to sit for its first session on April 22.
