by MUNZA MUSHTAQ
Sri Lankan voters rejected Mahinda Rajapaksa authoritarian rule
Nothing has been going right for Sri Lanka’s powerful ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa this year.
First he lost the presidential election in January to his former health minister Maithripala Sirisena, then took a further beating Aug 17 when he lost to his political rival, Ranil Wickremesinghe who won the parliamentary election and took oath as Prime Minister on Aug 21.
Rajapaksa, considered as Sri Lanka’s most powerful politician during the past decade, was convinced he would take on the political reins once again if his United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won the majority of the 225 seats in the country’s legislature.
However, his hopes were dashed as his party was able to secure only 95 seats while Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) won 106 seats with the remaining 24 seats being shared by other political parties.
In a surprise move, this time Rajapaksa contested from the Kurunegala district in the country’s North Western province, instead of his traditional seat, his hometown of Hambantota in the South.
He expected to put up a stellar performance as Kurunegala has a predominantly Sinhalese voter base. But he failed to make an overwhelming impact as his party secured just eight seats, including one for himself, against UNP’s seven seats.
Rajapaksa, however, topped the preferential vote list in the Kurunegala district with 423,529, but not enough to create a record. His rival Wickremesinghe, who contested from Colombo, set a new record by securing 500,566 votes, the highest ever preferential votes polled by any candidate at a parliamentary election in Sri Lanka.
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