By Ankit Panda
In Sri Lanka’s parliamentary vote, former president Rajapaksa falls short of a comeback, leaving the incumbent in place.
Elections results from Monday’s parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka are trickling in from across the country, but, as far as the prime minister’s office is concern, the incumbent Ranil Wickremsinghe has edged out the country’s former authoritarian-leaning president, Mahinde Rajapaksa, for victory. Ahead of results on Tuesday, Rajapaksa preemptively conceded defeat to Agence France-Presse, noting that his “dream of becoming prime minister [had] faded away.” ”I am conceding. We have lost a good fight,” he told his supporters.
As per the nearly complete results (18 of 22 districts have reported as of this writing), the center-right United National Party-led (UNP) United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) coalition of parties pulled in the most seats across the country, taking 70 and on track to seal in a total result just shy of the 113-seat majority necessary to control Sri Lanka’s 225-seat unicameral legislature. The United People’s Freedom Alliance, the party led by the incumbent president, Maithripala Sirisena, who ousted Rajapaksa in a surprise January presidential election result, looks set to control a powerful minority government nonetheless. The Tamil National Alliance, a coalition of minority parties representing the majority Tamil north of the country, took the northern provinces of Jaffna and Vanni.
Read the full story at The Diplomat