Sharp rise as rejected votes top 700,000

• 4.58% votes rejected compared to 0.85% in Nov. Presidential Election
• Turnout at Wednesday’s poll close to 76%
• SLPP vote base remains intact from Nov., but SJB/UNP gets less than half the support
• JVP remain unable to cross 3% mark

Over 700,000 votes cast at Wednesday’s Parliamentary Election were rejected, a steep rise from the less than 140,000 rejected votes cast during last November’s Presidential Election.

The final election result released by the Election Commission (EC) showed that 744,373, or 4.58 % of the 75.89% of the total votes polled, were rejected. This is in comparison to the 135,452, or 0.85%, of votes rejected at the Presidential Election.

The turnout at Wednesday’s election was close to 76%, far better than the 71% announced by the EC on Wednesday.

Of the 16,263,885 registered voters, 12,343,309 cast their votes, of which 11,598,936 were valid votes.

The SLPP won 6,853,693, or 59.89%, of the votes, a shortfall of around 70,000 votes when compared to the 6,924,255 that the party’s candidate President Gotabaya Rajapaksa secured at November’s Presidential Poll.

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), led by Sajith Premadasa, secured 2,771,984, or 23.98%, of the vote. In the Presidential Election, Premadasa, who contested on the National Democratic Front (NDF) ticket with the backing of the UNP, secured 5,564,239 votes. The tally for Wednesday’s election shows a drop of 2,792,255 votes.

The JVP-led alliance NPP won 445,958, or 3.84%, of the vote, a slight increase from the 418,553 votes party Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake secured as the presidential candidate.

ITAK won 327,168, or 2.82%, of the votes in the Northern and Eastern Provinces it contested in, while the UNP won only 249,435, or 2.15%, of the vote. (CK)