Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka yesterday said former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is talking about forming government suddenly, had received only close to 40 percent of the total votes.
The Minister went on to say that political parties which came together to defeat Rajapaksa at the last election under the Swan symbol had received 51 percent of the votes at the recent polls. The result shows the people had not distanced themselves from the mandate given to the present government at the January 8, 2015 election, the Minister noted.
He said the need of the hour was for an accelerated national programme to further strengthen the bonds between the two main parties while ensuring there will be no conflicts with other parties which supported the 2008 change.
In a media release, the Minister pointed out that media institutions when calculating the percentages obtained by the political parties had only taken into account the votes obtained by the major parties, the SLPP, UNP, SLFP, UPFA, JVP and the TNA, which came to a total of 11,069,417.
The Minister pointed out that the total votes calculated with the votes obtained by other minor parties and independent groups should come to 12,214,901.
The minister said the SLPP has only received 40.66 percent and not 44.65 percent as stated by some media channels.
The Minister said the UNP has obtained 29.40 percent, the SLFP and UPFA 12.38 percent and JVP 5.8 percent.
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