Sri Lanka polls: Initial results show UNF Galle victory

“The majority of people of this country have approved the continuance of good governance and consensual politics endorsed by the people through the silent revolution of 8 January”, Mr Wickremesinghe said, referring to the January presidential election, when Sri Lankans voted Mr Rajapaksa out.

“I invite all of you to join hands”, Wickremesinghe today said in a statement as the count neared completion.

Official results showed Wickremesinghe’s United National Party won 106 out of 225 seats in Parliament, while former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s United People’s Freedom Alliance secured 95.

Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said that the final party positions were expected by mid-Tuesday, while individual votes for candidates would arrive later in the day.

Rajapaksa who lost the presidency in January to his former Health Minister, Maithripala Sirisena, won his seat as MP – but the results mean he will be staying on the opposition benches.

Sirisena had clashed with Rajapaksa, who ran for prime minister on an SLFP ticket, and a political realignment could leave the former president isolated in a rump opposition, as he and his allies face a series of corruption investigations.

Wickremesinghe became prime minister for the first time in May 1993, when a suicide bomber assassinated president Ranasinghe Premadasa.

The United National Party (UNP), the key constituent in the country’s minority government, expressed confidence that it would get the numbers in the 225-seat parliament to form the next government.

“We are winning and I am confident of forming the government”, Rajapaksa said “My message is to remain calm and peacefully enjoy our victory”.

Since that loss, there has been a reversal of fortunes for Rajapaksa, his family, and friends, who were once all powerful controllers of the island nation.

Rajapaksa is hugely popular among big sections of the ethnic majority Sinhalese community for presiding over the crushing defeat of Tamil guerrillas in 2009 after their 37-year campaign for a separate homeland.

He is expected to be sworn in again to form a new government shortly, officials said.

“We intend to keep our promises and develop the country”, UNP leader John Amaratunga said, adding that Wickremesinghe would again take oath as prime minister.