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| Monday, 26 April 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| UPFA routs UNP at Wayamba In a massive show of confidence in the United People's Freedom Alliance, the people of Wayamba dealt the UNP a crushing defeat at Saturday's North Western Provincial Council elections. The UNP won only one seat although, under the Proportional Representation (PR) system they had 19 seats to the 31 won by the Freedom Alliance and two by the SLMC. The Freedom Alliance polled 491,000 votes (59.10 per cent) to the UNP's 311,773 (37.53 per cent) for a majority of 179,227 votes. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress obtained 24,173 (2.91 per cent). The election held for the first time on a Saturday was marked by a low voter turnout with only a 863,363 (55.53 per cent) casting their votes out of the 1,539,539 registered electors from the two districts of Kurunegala and Puttalam. The total valid votes were 830,744. The Alliance obtained 362,084 votes (59.85 per cent) from the Kurunegala District which helped them to obtain 20 seats while the UNP was able to secure only 215,905 votes (35.69 per cent) and 12 seats. The Muslim Congress polled 24,173 votes (4 per cent) for two seats in the Kurunegala district. In the Puttalam district, the Freedom Alliance bagged nine seats having obtained 128,916 votes (28.64 per cent) while the UNP polled 95,868 (21.30 per cent) which it was seven seats. The Alliance made a clean sweep in all electorates in the Kurunegala District winning by massive majorities. In Galgamuwa, the UNP was trounced by a near 20,000 majority with the Alliance obtaining 33,579 votes to the UNP's 13,849. In Nikaweratiya, the Alliance polled 27,290 votes as against the UNP's 15,085. The Alliance secured victory in four out of five polling divisions in the Puttalam District. The UNP won only the Puttalam polling division by a majority of 3,155 votes with UNP obtaining 24,073 votes as against the Alliance's 20,918. The Alliance chalked a clear victory in the Nattandiya Polling division by a majority of 9,297 votes while also winning Chilaw by a majority of 9,193 votes. Twelve recognised political parties and seven independent groups fielded a total of 784 candidates at the Wayamba election. Meanwhile, our Kurunegala additional District Group Correspondent Sunil S. Pellandeniya said Saturday's polling progressed at a very slow pace amid low enthusiasm a factor in the poor voter turnout. The heavy down-pour towards evening too marred voting which was also attributed to the low turnout. Wayamba DIG Asoka Ratnaweera said the election was peaceful despite few minor incidents which were promptly settled. Several vehicles spotted roaming suspiciously near new polling stations taken into custody, were released later. The heavy rains had also delayed the transportation of ballot boxes resulting in a delay in the counting of votes. |
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