Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday declared victory for his party in the 2020 General Elections, BBC reported. His brother Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to take over as prime minister, after having held the post in a caretaker role since November last year.
The brothers’ party, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, won 145 of the 225 seats in Parliament, and five more seats from its allies, thus giving it an exact two-thirds majority, according to Ada Derana.
Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party won no seats in the new Parliament, down from 106 in the outgoing Parliament. The new main Opposition is now the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, a group established by the son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was assassinated in 1993. The group has won 47 seats in Parliament.
The winning party received 68.53 lakh votes, followed by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, which won 27.71 lakh votes. The turnout in the elections, held on August 5 despite the coronavirus pandemic, was more than 75%.
“We expected a win, a spectacular win, but not this big a victory,” Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna leader Udaya Gammanpila told reporters according to The Guardian. Sri Lanka had no Parliament since Gotabaya Rajapaksa sacked the Assembly in March, and then postponed elections scheduled for April citing the coronavirus outbreak.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Modi called Mahinda Rajapaksa to congratulate him on his party’s victory. Rajapaksa tweeted: “Thank you PM @narendramodi for your congratulatory phone call. With the strong support of the people of #SriLanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries. Sri Lanka & India are friends & relations.”
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