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Ranil meets President today

by the Daily News Elections Desk

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday invited United National Front (UNF) Leader and Prime Minister-designate Ranil Wickremesinghe to form a new Government, following the UNF's victory at the General Election.

They will discuss the appointment of the Prime Minister and Members of the Cabinet today at President's House, the Presidential Secretariat said yesterday.

President Kumaratunga and Mr. Wickremesinghe will "discuss measures that need to be taken under Article 43(3) and Article 44(1) with regard to the appointment of a Prime Minister for the 12th Parliament and for the appointment of Ministers of the Cabinet," a statement from the Presidential Secretariat said.

The President has also held a discussion with former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake on the same issues.

The UNF has gained 109 seats including 13 from the National List.

The UNF won 17 districts, mostly with huge majorities over the second-placed People's Alliance (PA) which has gained 66 seats from the direct vote. They have 11 National List seats.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) came third with 16 seats, an improvement of six seats from the last Parliament. This includes three National List seats.

The Tamil United Liberation Front/Tamil National Alliance won 15 seats including one National List seat. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) came fifth with five seats including one from the National List and the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), sixth with two seats. The Democratic People's Liberation Front (DPLF), the political wing of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), gained one seat which they lost last year.

Sihala Urumaya, which predicted two more seats in addition to the one they already had, lost their hopes, scoring a duck on the final scoreboard.

The 12th Parliament is due to be convened on January 1, 2002.

The UNP/UNF improved on its performance in October 2000, receiving 608,252 more votes. The PA received 3,330,815 votes, a reduction of 570,086 votes from their last year's total. The JVP increased their total count by 296,579 votes, totalling 815,353 in the final tally.

The UNF swept all districts except Moneragala (won by PA), Wanni (TULF), Digamadulla (SLMC), Jaffna (TULF) and Batticaloa (TULF). It recorded landslides in Colombo, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Polonnaruwa and Puttalam, winning all electorates.

The biggest majority for the UNP was recorded in Nuwara Eliya district, where the party obtained 215,157 votes compared to the PA's 77,733. Electorate-wise, the biggest victory for the UNP was at Nuwara-Eliya Maskeliya, where it received 130,633 votes to the PA's 28,734. This is a majority of more than 102,000.

The Elections Department yesterday announced the results for the 12 districts that were held back on Wednesday for a number of reasons including reports of vote rigging, intimidation and other acts of violence in some polling divisions. However, political party chiefs who met the Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake decided to not to go for a re-poll.

UNF Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe obtained the highest number of preferential votes - 415,686 - in the whole island. Former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake received 120,432 votes. UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya has 250,900 votes.

Among the other candidates who have polled over 100,000 preferential votes are Karu Jayasuriya, Milinda Moragoda, Ravi Karunanayake, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Vajira Abeywardene, Dr.Rajitha Senaratne, Gamini Atukorale, Susantha Punchinilame, Arumugam Thondaman, P.Chandrasekaran, Muttu Sivalingam (UNP) and Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, Anura Bandaranaike, A.H.M.Fowzie and Mangala Samaraweera (PA).

President Kumaratunga dissolved Parliament on October 10 and fixed elections for December 5.

Nominations were accepted from October 20 to 27. Campaigning began soon thereafter and ended on December 2, 48 hours before the election.

A major feature of the election was the significantly high voter turnout between 75 to 80 per cent. Moneragala voters displayed the highest level of enthusiasm, with a turnout of 82 per cent.

Despite acts of violence in some areas, the election was conducted in a peaceful atmosphere in the majority of districts, with no incidents being reported.

A total of 12,428,762 persons were eligible to vote at the 12th Parliamentary Election to elect 225 Members to Parliament. Only 196 Members are directly elected, based on the number of seats for each party and the individual candidates' preference votes. The rest are elected from the National List.

More than 242,600 public servants and Security Forces personnel were involved in official duties at the Election.

Polling was conducted at 9,981 centres countrywide. A total of 4610 candidates from 26 political parties and 120 independent groups were in the fray. The election was based on the Proportional Representation system.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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