Gagani Weerakoon

The elections to appoint 155 councillors to the Western and Southern Provincial Councils concluded showing a clear reduction of votes polled by the ruling party, United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) even though, it was still able to secure a resounding victory with a large margin from its main opponent, the United National Party.

A total of 3,794 candidates, representing 23 recognized political parties and 42 independent groups, contested the recently concluded election.

While the UPFA managed to win all districts, the UNP was not able to win a single out of the six other than securing victory in party’s traditional strong holds in the Colombo District. Meanwhile, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which was still struggling to show progress in last year’s North-western and Northern Provincial Council elections, has shown remarkable progress by increasing its voter base by 300% in this election under its new leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

The Democratic Party, which contested for the first time at the 2013 elections, has been able to take its victory further by securing 12 seats in Western and Southern Provincial Councils and has emerged as the alternative force of the opposition on par with the JVP. Since the JVP has been able to increase its voter base in this election, it is clear that the Sarath Fonseka led Democratic Party had snatched away more of the UNP and UPFA floating votes.

In this election, it was noteworthy that none of the political parties had clearly endorsed their respective campaign lines in connection with the matters pertaining to the respective provinces and instead took upon national and international matters as campaign slogans.

The government sought a mandate from people against an alleged international conspiracy against President Mahinda Rajapaksa and to voice public displeasure against the US sponsored resolution at the UNHRC calling for an international probe on war crimes.

On the other hand, the UNP, in their published election manifesto, asked for a vote to topple the Rajapaksa Government while, the JVP and Democratic Party called for a mandate to replace UNP in the Opposition to end the corruption of the current government.

Wake up call

With the final results of the two Provincial Council elections in, it seems like the voters have given a wakeup call to both, the government and largely to main Opposition UNP, to get their act together. By entrusting a remarkable victory to the Democratic Party and the JVP, people of the country had voiced the need of a stronger alternative force in the country, political analysts said.

In the Rajapaksa stronghold of Hambantota District, the UNP was able to increase its voter base to 26% from 21.65% recorded at the 2009 election, while the JVP’s voter base increased to 12% from the 11% in 2009. On the other hand, the UPFA lost its ground in the Hambantota District by 10% as it could poll only 57% of the total votes which stood at 67% in the 2009 Southern Provincial Council Elections. Notably, while other UNP leaders failed in their part of the job, Sajith Premadasa, who is the organizer of UNP in Hambantota, has managed to increase the party’s voter base by 18,000 votes and a seat.

Similarly, both UPFA and UNP lost ground in the Matara District while the JVP gained when compared to the final results in 2009. Accordingly, the UPFA was reduced from 68% to 59% and UNP from 26% to 24%, while the JVP increased from 5.5% to 10.3% of the total votes polled.
In the Galle District, the UPFA managed only 57.5% this year against 68% in 2009 while the Democratic Party secured 9% and JVP 6% from the total votes polled.

Overall, the UPFA voter base declined from 68% to 58% in the Southern Province and they lost 5 seats as the number of seats they secured in 2009, came down from 38 to 33 in 2014. Similarly, the voter base of the UNP declined from 27% to 25.8% even though the number of seats they secured in 2009 remains at 14 in 2014 as well. However, being the gainers in the recently concluded election, the JVP, whose voter base increased from 4% to 9%, was able to gain two more seats this time as their number of seats in the SPC increased from 3 to 5 while new comers Democratic Party secured 3 seats.

In the Western Province, the UNP was able to secure victory in its traditional strongholds despite the UPFA winning the majority of the electorates in the Colombo District. The UNP has won Borella, Colombo Central, Colombo East, Colombo North, and Colombo West, while the UPFA bagged Ratmalana, Dehiwala, Kolonnawa, Kotte, Homagama, Moratuwa, Avissawella and Kaduwela.

However, the UPFA lost 12 seats in the Western Province as the number of seats it secured came down to 56 from 68 in 2009 and UNP too lost two seats as the number of seats it held in the council came down from 30 to 28.

On the other hand the DP, JVP and the Mano Ganesan-led Democratic People’s Front gained in the election by securing nine, six and two seats respectively.

In the Kalutara District the UNP (25%) Democratic Party (7.6%) and JVP (4.4%) gained, while the UPFA once again lost its ground as the voter base came down from 69% to 59%.

More importantly, the UPFA showed a decline in votes in the recently concluded elections as it lost ground in its traditional stronghold, the Gampaha District with only 58% votes being polled against its sweeping victory in 2009 when it polled 69% of the total votes.
COURTESY:CEYLON TODAY