UPFA plays down reduction in votes

Tuesday, 1 April 2014 01:26 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) yesterday played down the loss of votes it suffered at the just concluded Provincial Council elections despite coming out victorious. Health Minister and SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena said that it is not practical to compare the votes the Government received at the 2009 provincial council elections and the elections held on Saturday. He says in 2009 the conditions were different as it was at a time the Government had defeated the LTTE after 30 years of war and the people showed their strong support towards that achievement. However, the Minister said today the political environment in the country is different and yet the Government won the Western and Southern Provincial elections. “No one compared the results of the SLFP during past elections when in 1994 it came to power. So you need to look at the political climate of the day when trying to compare data on an election result,” he said. The Government had lost over 200,000 votes at the Western and Southern Provincial council elections despite winning the elections in both provinces. Results of the elections released yesterday had showed that most of those votes lost by the UPFA had either gone to the opposition or were not used. The UPFA managed to secure 56 seats following the elections in the Western Province held on Saturday, which included two bonus seats, while the UNP got 28 seats in the province and the Democratic Party led by Sarath Fonseka got nine seats. In the Southern Province the UPFA had secured 33 seats, including two bonus seats, followed by the UNP with 14 seats, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) won five seats and the Democratic Party three seats. (Colombo Gazette) Pic by Kithsiri de Mel