26 August 2019 06:33 pm
The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) said today that there would be no necessity to mark second and third preferences at the presidential poll as cautioned by some NGOs.
Addressing a news briefing, PHU leader and MP Udaya Gammanpila said the discussion of second and third preferences was opened up after the JVP decided to field its own presidential candidate.
“The JVP which supported the UNP candidate at the last two presidential elections decided to field its own candidate. The JVP decision to run its own will cost at least 700,000 votes for the UNP. Hence, pro-UNP election-monitoring NGOs have initiated a campaign to encourage people to mark their second and third preference. They say marking the second and third preferences is essential as no candidate would obtain more than 50% of the votes. This is a baseless statement,” he said.
Predicting what could happen at the presidential election in terms of results, MP Gammanpila said, “In the worst scenario, the SLPP is still at the 42% vote chunk received at the last local government elections held on February 2018. The UNP was at 29%. It will reach 31% after the addition of votes received by coalition partners contesting independently. If the SLPP musters 42% and the UNP garners 31%, the second and third preferences should also be counted. However, in Sri Lanka, as a practice, nobody marks their second and third preferences. Hence, there will be no additional votes to be added to the main candidates. Therefore, whoever with the highest number of votes will be declared as the president. Based on the local government election results, it will be Gotabaya Rajapaksa,” he said.
On a different note, he said the present UNP Government was the worst-performing in the history.
“You can arrive at this conclusion by listening to criticism of its own members such as Patali Champika Ranawaka, Sarath Fonseka, Rajitha Senaratne, Harin Fernando, Sujeewa Senasinghe and Ajith Perera. Hence, Gotabaya Rajapaksa will definitely win the presidential election with a comfortable majority,” he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)
Video by Buddhi