November 17 (newsin.asia): Sri Lanka’s president-elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa told newsin.asia a short while ago while leaving the elections commission in Colombo that he was extremely happy for winning the presidential poll on Saturday.
“I will now begin to work for my people, all the citizens of Sri Lanka, and I thank all of them”. He said that he will work for the betterment of all including those who did not vote for him.
Rajapaksa will take oath as the president of Sri Lanka in Anuradhapura the capital city of the North Central province on Monday morning.
Rajapaksa won the election on Saturday securing 52.25% (6,924,255) votes from the total votes.
Wigneswaran Wants Self-determination
Meanwhile, from the Northern Province, the former Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran issued a statement congratulating Gotabaya on his election victory but reminded him that the election had divided the country into water-tight communal compartments and that he had won chiefly with the support of the majority Sinhalese.
Wigneswaran appealed to Gotabaya to treat all communities equally and address the concerns of the Tamils and their aspiration to have the right to self-determination.
While the Tamil majority Northern Province and the ethnically mixed Eastern Province voted overwhelmingly for Sajith Premadasa of the United National Party (UNP), the Sinhalese majority South including the strongholds of the UNP like Colombo, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, voted for Gotabaya.
Many liberals fear that the vote has sharpened the communal/ethnic divide but the counter argument is that such a division has always been there, with the North and East Tamils voting for the Tamil National Alliance and the Muslims voting for their communal parties. The Sinhalese vote for the so-called national parties which are actually Sinhalese communal parties under neutral moniker.
Sajith’s Plea To Gota
The defeated UNP candidate Sajith Premadasa said in a statement that he would appeal to the newly elected President to ensnure the continuance of the democratic norms established by the UNP government in 2015, allow the independent commissions to function, and not tamper with the freedom of the press.
