Ruling coalition wins Sri Lanka election

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition has won Sri Lanka’s first post-war parliamentary elections, further consolidating his political dominance after the battlefield defeat of the Tamil Tigers last year.

The victory follows Mr Rajapaksa’s re-election in presidential polls three months ago. Despite opposition allegations that the president wants to monopolise power, he is a hero to many of the country’s Sinhalese majority hoping for a new era of development and reconciliation.

The Election Department said Mr Rajapaksa’s United People’s Freedom Alliance has so far won 117 of the 225 seats contested in Thursday’s polls. Its tally was expected to rise.

A party must win 113 seats to get a simple majority and form a government.

It remains unclear whether Mr Rajapaksa’s coalition can secure the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution – which could open the way for an amendment to allow the president to serve beyond the end of his second term in 2017.

The closest rival, the United National Front, has so far won 46 seats.

“It’s a personal victory for the president,” Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council activist group said of the election result. “It’s a very big majority... What it means is that the voters have given the government a blank check.”

Another opposition party led by defeated presidential candidate and former army chief Sarath Fonseka – who is currently under detention awaiting court-martial - has won five seats, the Election Department said. Party official Vijitha Herath said Mr Fonseka won one of the seats.

A party of the ethnic Tamil minority received 12 seats from its stronghold in the north-east, the department said.

So far, results for only 180 seats have been declared.

The department suspended releasing results for 16 seats after it annulled votes from 38 voting stations in two districts and called for a revote. A date for the revote is yet to be announced.

Another 29 seats are allocated according to the percentage of the vote each party gets.

Mr Rajapaksa’s coalition held 128 seats in the outgoing 225-member parliament.

Government minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the election victory is a “clear manifestation of the people’s confidence in the president and the government”, mainly because of the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels in the 25-year civil war.

“We believe we are also capable of meeting the challenge of development,” he said.

United National Front official Tissa Attanayake cried foul over the elections but acknowledged his party had suffered a setback.

He said the government illegally used government resources for the campaign and employed violence and intimidation during the campaign and on election day.

“We are of the view that the party should undergo reforms,” he said, without elaborating.