Presidential or General Election:
UPFA can get two-thirds majority
Chaminda PERERA
The UPFA is quite capable of achieving the two thirds majority at a
future General election or Presidential election, Agriculture and
Agrarian Services Development Minister and SLFP General Secretary
Maithreepala Sirisena told a press conference in Colombo yesterday.
The UPFA has changed the idea that a political party cannot achieve
the two third majority under the present electoral system.
“The UPFA dispelled the notion in the public minds that a party can
achieve a two third majority only under the First Past the Post system”
‘ he said.
“The UPFA has recorded massive victories in seven Provincial Councils
including the Eastern Province and the people in the Southern Province
will give unprecedented support to the Government at the forthcoming
Southern Provincial Council election,” he said.
“The UPFA’s progressive march under the leadership of President
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership cannot be reverted. The President has
earned the credit and confidence of majority of people in the country,”
he said.
The Minister said the United National Party has plunged into the
political dustbin of the history with the humiliating defeat at the Uva
Provincial Council election.
The Uva province and the Badulla district in particular has been an
UNP stronghold for over four decades and the party could not be defeated
in the 1994 General election which marked the end of 17 years UNP rule
in the country.
The Minister said the Government won the Uva province at the last
Presidential election by only two majority votes and the achievement
gained by the UPFA at the recently concluded Uva provincial election is
significant and shows that the people in the Uva province have placed
tremendous confidence in the President.
He said the people in the Jaffna district underwent harrowing
experiences during the Jaffna Development Council election in the early
1980s. The UNP is responsible for unleashing violence in Jaffna during
the election.
The people in the Jaffna Municipal limits who faced untold hardships
and obstacles due to the violence unleashed by the UNP have supported
the Government at the recent Uva Provincial Council election. The
elements instigated by the UNP set on fire to the Jaffna Library and
threw ballot boxes into sea, he said.
The election results at the Vavuniya Urban Council election
demonstrate that the election was conducted by the Elections Department
in free and fair manner.
UPFA General Secretary and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha
said over 50 percent of voters living in the areas under the Jaffna
Municipal Council had cast their votes at the recent Jaffna Municipal
Council election.
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