Sri Lanka: Mahinda Rajapaksa registers landslide victory in Parliamentary elections

In Sri Lanka, the ruling party led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa registered a landslide victory in the general elections held on Wednesday.

Mr Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka People’s party (SLPP) has won 145 seats in the 225-member Parliament, nearing a two-thirds majority. Samagi Jana balawega (SJB) led by former minister Sajith Premadasa has emerged as the main opposition party with 54 seats while the oldest party in the country United National Party (UNP) led by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe has got only a single seat.

SLPP got around 59 percent of the popular vote while SJB was able to garner around 24 percent. SJB is an offshoot of UNP and was formed early this year after Mr Premadasa failed to wrest control of



UNP.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared the SLPP winners and also expressed confidence of establishing a strong Parliament to implement his policies.

President Gotabaya is the younger brother of Mahinda Rajapksa who became Prime Minister after the victory of Mr Gotabaya in the Presidential election in November last year

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated his Sri Lankan counterpart on his victory in parliamentary election. Later in a tweet, Mr. Mahinda Rajapksa said that he looks forward to closely working with Prime Minister Modi to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between the two countries. He added that Sri Lanka and India are friends and relations.