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| Sunday, 24 March 2002 |
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Politics |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Peace
wave win for UNP
by Don Asoka Wijewardena The United National Party received 66 per cent of total votes cast and the People's Alliance was in shatters at the local government elections held March 20. The UNP got a landslide victory of 217 out of 222 local bodies, and the PA won the urban council of Haputala and Pradesiya Shabha of Ayagema. The UNP received a massive victory by returning 2097 members, PA 910, JVP 188 and others 70. The PA lost its strongholds at Attanagalle, Gampaha, Dompe and Mahara pradesiya shabhas and the JVP won Tissamaharama pradesiya shabha by 1,000 votes. The total number of registered voters were 9533977 to elect 3263 members for 12 municipal councils, 26 urban councils and 184 pradesiya shabhas. The number of voters on district basis: 1. Colombo 892895, Gampaha 1247395, Kalutara 622559, Kandy 838687, Matale 299606, Nuwara Eliya 315236, Galle 638196, Matara 478566, Hambantota 362121, Kurunegala 1046102, Puttalam 354038, Anuradhapura 455167, Polonnaruwa 240444, Badulla 436936, Moneragala 194235, Ratnapura 557259, Kegalle 554592. The number of candidates who took part in the local polls were 4329. The numbers of valid votes according to district basis:
Districts Valid votes
Colombo 554454
Gampaha 787197
Kalutara 434392
Kandy 562024
Matale 207174
Nuwara Eliya 222334
Galle 481030
Matara 326539
Hambantota 241239
Kurunegala 693265
Puttalam 221732
Anuradhapura 316665
Polonnaruwa 170094
Badulla 298803
Monaragala 136364
Ratnapura 396739
Kegalle 365015
The highest number of rejected votes were reported from Gampaha district (39264), Kurunegala (36570) and Kandy 33401. The UNP received highest number of votes 427297 from the Kurunegala district, PA 291559 from the Gampaha district and the JVP 58376 from the Gampaha district. The total number of votes the UNP received from the 17 districts were: 3691547, the PA 2075475 and the JVP 424760. To bring an end to ethnic war,which has caused a widespread devastation economically to Sri Lanka, the UNF government took a bold initiative to commence peace talks and signed ceasefire agreement with the LTTE. Political observers were of the opinion that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's charismatic leadership and vision to take action without paying lip service to the ethnic problem had placed a genuine confidence in people. The steam-rolling majority that the UNP received at the local polls clearly shows that people have accepted the policies of the UNF and have cast their votes to achieve its objectives soon. |
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