China News Service, Kathmandu, August 7th Colombo: The results of the Sri Lanka parliamentary elections were announced on the morning of the 7th. The People's Front Party won 145 seats, which is very close to the absolute majority of 150 seats in the parliament and achieved an overwhelming victory.
The Sri Lankan parliament is a unicameral parliament consisting of 225 members. A single party occupies two-thirds of the seats and is considered an absolute majority. The last parliament was formed in August 2015, and the term of office is until August 2020.
According to the results announced on the 7th by the Election Committee of Sri Lanka, the United National Forces won 54 seats, the Tamil National League won 10 seats, the People's Liberation Front won 3 seats, and the United National Party won 1 seat.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said on his social media account that the victory of the People’s Front party gave us full confidence in a strong parliament in the future and our vision of “prosperity” will also be realized.
The People’s Front Party is led by the current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. It is worth noting that Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa are brothers.
Analysts said that the victory of the Popular Front party may allow Mahinda Rajapaksa to continue as prime minister; for the president, it is unlikely that his future governance will be too much constrained by the parliament.
Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections, which were forced to postpone twice due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, were successfully held on August 7. More than 11 million voters voted in 22 electoral districts across the country. Mahinda Deshapriya, chairman of the Sri Lanka Election Commission, said at the time that the voter turnout rate was 70%.
According to reports, more than 7,000 candidates participated in this parliamentary election. The main political parties participating in the election include the People’s Front Party, the United People’s Front led by the former presidential candidate Premadasa, and the United National Party led by the former Prime Minister Wick Le Masingha.
On March 2 this year, Gotabaya Rajapaksa signed a special communiqué announcing the dissolution of the parliament and held a new parliamentary election on April 25. Due to the new crown epidemic, Sri Lanka’s election commission has twice announced the postponement of parliamentary elections. (Finish)