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Ruling Party Gains in Sri Lanka
April 21, 2010
By: Benjamin Russell | Printer Friendly

Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) made significant gains in elections earlier this month, reports the Associated Press. The parliamentary elections were the first since the end of Rajapaksa’s successful campaign against the Tamil Tiger rebel group in May 2009.
 
After gaining an additional 34 seats, the UPFA now controls 144 of the country’s 225 parliamentary positions.  According to BBC News, Rajapaksa hopes to institute a series of constitutional reforms, but remains just six votes shy of the two-thirds parliamentary majority required to do so.
 
The country’s largest opposition group, the United National Front (UNF), secured 60 seats and prevented the UNF from attaining the two-thirds majority, but members of the ruling party remained confident in their ability to govern.  

"We may be short of 12 or 13 seats to get two-thirds but that will not be a challenge for us," said Transport Minister Dullas Alahaperuma, who is a spokesman for the UPFA. "There is no question about the victory," he told Reuters news agency.

That victory was not without controversy, though.  The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections questioned the fairness of the election, noting that a majority of the Tamil refugees in the north had been “denied the right to vote because they had not been given clear guidelines on what identification papers to use.”
The party led by General Sarath Fonseka, President Rajapaksa’s erstwhile ally and Sri Lanka’s army chief, gained seven seats.  Fonseka, who was soundly defeated by Rajapaksa in presidential elections earlier this year, is facing a court martial for allegedly abusing his military position for political gain.  Fonseka’s supporters say the charges against him are without merit and insist that his arrest was punishment for challenging Rajapaksa, according to the New York Times.

Sources:

Associated Press - Sri Lanka Ruling Party Increases Gains in Revote

BBC News – Sri Lanka Ruling Party Wins Majority in Parliament

NY Times – Turnout Low at Sri Lanka Parliamentary Elections