Colombo, Feb 12 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister, Mangala Samaraweera was one of the few UNP minister’s who broke his silence on Monday after suffering a humiliating defeat at the recently concluded Local Polls.
Following requests by former President Mahinda Rajapakse, calling on the government to hold a snap general election, Samaraweera said that Rajapakse’s dream of capturing the presidency would remain nothing but a dream.
In a post on his Twitter account, Samaraweera said, “Despite a good performance at #LGPolls2018 @PresRajapaksa dream of capturing the #Presidency will remain nothing but a dream as anti MR vote has increased from 51.28% in 2015 to 55.35% in 2018.”
Samaraweera also said that the just concluded Local Polls was a timely wake up call to “Yahapalana” govt to get back on track.
Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapakse and his party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (Sri Lanka People’s Front) have won a local government election held in the island country after the party won 239 local bodies out of 340, results released by the Elections Commission showed here Monday.
This is the first time that a newly formed party has gained a majority in an election.
The ruling United National Party (UNP) led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe won 41 local government bodies, while the ITAK which represents the minority Tamil population won 34. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), led by President Maithripala Sirisena won 10 local bodies.
Following the government’s defeat, President Maithripala Sirisena, on Sunday met minister’s from his SLFP Party who are part of the unity government and said he would bring noticeable changes within the coming days.
“The people of the country have voted for a change and I will respond positively to their message and introduce necessary changes accordingly as soon as possible,” Sirisena informed his cabinet ministers.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a meeting with his UNP Ministers said that the election result was a ‘wake-up call’ for the UNP and he intended to take some drastic decisions to put the government back on track.
Both the President and Prime Minister said they would continue the unity government till its full term which ends in 2020.
