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Sri Lanka ruling party claims 'resounding' victory
With the partial results of Sri Lanka's election announced, President Mahinda Rajapakse' has thanked the public for giving a mandate to his ruling party through a 'resounding' victory in the parliamentary elections. The Elections Commissioner on Friday said President Rajapakse's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has 117 seats in the 225-member assembly, AFP reported. "I sincerely thank you for giving me an unprecedented majority that will help make Sri Lanka an example to the rest of the world," Rajapakse said on Friday. The fate of 45 seats has yet to be determined. At least 24 of these seats are expected to be secured by the president's party, Rajapakse's spokesman Chandrapala Liyanage predicted. Should the predictions come true, the party would be only nine seats short of a two-thirds majority. Rajapakse led Colombo to victory over The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, thus ending the separatists' 25-year-long armed campaign for an independent state. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) was reduced to 46 seats, AFP added. Posted by: Fred 2010-04-10 |
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