Ruling party routs opposition, records win in six Sri Lanka provinces

Sri Lanka's ruling party recorded a victory in the provincial poll held in six of the country's eight provinces on Saturday, but only less than half of the registered voters turned up for voting.

The United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga won in all the six provinces posing a setback to the main opposition United National Front (UNF).

The ruling party recorded nearly one million votes more than the UNF and faced only a keen contest in the central province where they ended up equally with the main opposition, but obtained the benefit of the two bonus seats awarded to the party which gained a higher number of votes enabling them to take control of the council.

Of the 316 members to be elected to the six provincial councils 184 were returned from the UPFA as against 121 from the UNF led by Opposition leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the Upcountry People's Liberation Front (UPF) and the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) which closely works with the UNF returned five, three and one member respectively.

The UPFA reacting to criticism that only 45 per cent of the 9.5 million eligible voters turned up for voting said that since the parliamentary elections was held only about three months back the voter interest had dropped.

But, they strongly defended the victory 'as a peoples mandate' to carry out their programmes pledged during the Parliamentary election campaign.

"We have been given a mandate to carry out our programmes as described in our manifesto before the elections. The endorsement by the public is a further support extended to the alliance that they were satisfied with the programmes implemented so far," Consumer Affairs Minister Jeyraj Fernandopulle said.