Sri Lankan election voting results starts coming in - know the details

Sri Lankan parliament election results to start coming today, August 6 late afternoon and the final result will be known before midnight. The 71 % voting yesterday amid the coronavirus pandemic is to elect the new prime minister. The president Gotapaya Rajapakshe is confident of his party SLPP to win and make his brother Mahinda Rajapakshe the prime minister.

SLPP to change the constitution if get absolute majority in Sri Lankan election

If the SLPP or the Sri Lanka Podujana Party wins above 150 seats in the 225 member parliament, experts predict of change in the constitution. Gotabaya Rajapakse became the president in November by a landslide victory. He is expecting his SLPP party to win two-third seats in the parliament.

It will enable him to revoke the 19th constitutional amendment brought in 2015. It was after the ten years rule of Mahinda Rajapakse to restrict the powers of the president and distributing it more evenly among democratic institutions and the prime minister.

Rajapakse against weak opposition in Sri Lankan election

The opponent party United National Party headed by former prime minister Vikram Singh is divided now in its fight against SLPP. A breakaway faction called Samagi Jala Balawegaya or the United Peoples' Front was formed and is contesting the polls led by Sajith Premadasa.

The fourth party to contest the elections is the Sri Lanka Freedom Party led by Maithripala Srisena. In this four-faced contest, SLPP which is successfully alleged to have broken the Vikram Singh's United National Party to split the votes against them, are the favorites to win this election.

Though the voting percentage is down to 71 % from the 77 % recorded last time in 2015, in these times of coronavirus crisis, it seems to be a good turnout by Sri Lankan people. For the one crore and 60 lakh people to vote yesterday to select the 225 members of parliament from the 7,200 contestants, there were 12,985 polling booths functional yesterday.

People following social distancing voted to select their prime minister and members of parliament. All have to wait until late night today, to know if the SLPP get the two-third majority and who is going to be the next prime minister in Sri Lanka.

The Rajapakshe brothers once again dominate the Sri Lankan elections