President wins Sri Lanka parliamentary polls

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 05, 2004

President wins Sri Lanka parliamentary polls

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President Chandrika Kumaratunga's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) became the biggest political force in the parliament but still fell short of an absolute majority required to form a government alone, according to the results of Friday's election announced in Colombo late Sunday.

According to the election commissioner, in the 225-seat Parliament, Kumaratunga's UPFA won 105 seats, securing 45.6 percent of the votes, while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party gained 82 seats, getting 37.83 percent of the total votes.

The Tamil National Alliance, the proxy of the Liberation Tigersof Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, with 22 seats has become the third largest party followed by the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) or the National Heritage Party led by Buddhist monks who took nine.

The Sri Lankan Muslim Congress won five and two other smaller parties from minority Tamil Community Eelam People's Democratic Party and Up-Country People's Front got one each.

As the UPFA has not secured the majority of 113 seats in the parliament, it has to form a government with one or more other political parties.

UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha said that they would form a minority government on Monday.

The JHU legislators representing the Buddhist monks have said that they are to stay neutral in conducting their affairs in the parliament.

More than 12 million Sri Lankan voters on Friday cast their ballots with over 70 percent turnout to elect the 13th parliament since the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1948.

Compared with the past elections, the Friday election was the most peaceful election in Sri Lanka's recent history and the usual practice of imposing election day night curfew and the following day curfew was thus not resorted to.

Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said no incidents of ballot stuffing, snatching of ballot boxes had taken place although there had been a few incidents of voter intimidation.

In a quick response to the election, the US embassy here on Saturday congratulated the Sri Lankan people on the conclusion of a peaceful parliamentary election and urged the new government to resume negotiations with the LTTE rebels as soon as possible and achieve a lasting peace in the war-torn country.

Source: Xinhua

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