Sri Lanka General Elections 2015: UNFGG emerges as largest group
United National Party (UNP) led United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) has emerged as largest group by winning 106 seats out of total 225 seats in Sri Lankan Parliamentary election 2015.
Leader of the UNFGG and UNP and current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is expected to form a new government with the support of 95 MPs of United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) loyal to President Maithripala Sirisena.
Background
- Sri Lankan parliamentary election 2015 was held on 17 August 2015 to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka’s 15th Parliament.
- The voter turnout for this election was record 77.66 per cent.
- Seat Allocation: Of the total 225 seats, 196 were to be directly elected from 22 multi-member electoral districts based on open party-list proportional representation method.
- While, remaining 29 seats are National list seats which are allotted to the parties on basis of their overall votes secured by them.
Party wise results
- United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) – 93 seats were won in direct election and 13 seats in National list. Thus total seats won are 106.
- United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) – won 83 seats directly won and 12 seats in National list. Thus total seats won are 95. It should be noted that UPFA was led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
- Tamil National Alliance (TNA)-won 16 seats. They are largest party representing Sri Lankan Tamils.
- Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna– won 6 seats.
- Sri Lanka Muslim Congress– won 1 seat.
- Eelam People’s Democratic Party- won 1 seat.
Comment
With this parliamentary election results, Mahinda Rajapaksa era in Sri Lankan politics came to end as he was seeking to return to power after earlier massive defeat in Presidential elections 2015 (He was defeated by Maithripala Sirisena).
Month: Current Affairs - August, 2015