Supporters of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe shout slogans following the general election, in the capital Colombo. Sri Lanka's former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse admitted his dream of a political comeback was over, conceding defeat in parliamentary elections while his victorious rival appealed for unity. No party appears to have secured an absolute majority of 113 seats in the 225-member parliament, which will force the new government to seek out smaller allies.
Sri Lanka’s ruling United National Party won the legislative elections, which will help its reform plans, but failed to secure an absolute majority.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s PNU won 106 out of 225 seats, dashing the hopes of former island strongman Mahinda Rajapakse to return to power. The United People’s Alliance for Freedom (APUL) led by Mr. Rajapakse won 95 seats.
The PNU more than doubled the number of its seats in parliament, from 40 to 106, when it needed 113 seats for an absolute majority.
The prime minister will now have to form a new government, but his party will have to rely on its allies to pass bills, including the democratic reforms promised in the presidential election in January.
Before the official announcement of the results, Mr. Rajapakse admitted defeat. “My dream of becoming prime minister has faded,” Rajapakse, in power for nearly ten years and supporter of the bloody military campaign that ended the separatist struggle of the Tamil Tigers in 2009, told AFP .
A peaceful ballot
The Tamil National Alliance won 16 seats, ranking third, and the Marxists of the People’s Liberation Front won six.
The two parties have said they will not be part of a governing coalition.
President Maithripala Sirisena had called these legislative elections a year before the date set to end the blocking of Parliament by supporters of his predecessor.
Coming from the APUL like Mr. Rajapakse, of which he was the Minister of Health, Mr. Sirisena had defected and tried his luck in the January presidential election.
Its Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, had spoken in favor of early elections in order to strengthen his majority in Parliament and facilitate the implementation of reforms.
Monday’s polls were one of the most peaceful in Sri Lanka, plagued by more than three decades of civil war, where just over 15 million voters were called to the polls.
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