Mangala says MR vote base has eroded

Media and Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday disclosed that MP and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s support base has eroded between the 8 January 2015 Presidential poll and 10 February LG election. 

“It is evident that the same Mahinda Rajapaksa who in January 2015 commanded 5.77 million votes (47.6%) as his presidency waned, last week was not even able to muster 4.95 million votes or even 44.7% of voters,” Samaraweera said in a statement. 

“The UNP has a solemn duty not just to the 46% of the electorate who voted for us and President Sirisena’s SLFP last Saturday, but to the entire resounding majority of our citizens, all 6.1 million of them (55.3%) who marched to the polls last Saturday and voted against a return to Rajapaksa rule,” the statement continued.