Colombo, Aug 7 (UNI) Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has secured a landslide victory in Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections by gaining a majority in the new parliament, announced official statistics released by the Elections Commission.
The SLPP won 145 seats in the 225-member parliament, hence securing a two-thirds majority in parliament. Sajith Premadasa led Samagi Jana Balawegaya or the United People's Front, was runner up by winning 54 seats while the ITAK, a Tamil political party, won 10 seats.
Surprisingly the United National Party, led by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe did not win any seats. United National Party is one of the oldest political parties of Sri Lanka.
The election commission's results showed that SLPP party received 59.09 per cent of the votes polled i e 6.8 million votes, while the Samagi Jana Balawegaya(SJB) secured 23.90 pc of the total votes polled.
Mahinda Rajapaksa is likely to be sworn in as the new Prime Minister on Sunday while the new cabinet will be sworn in in the coming week.
As per the country's constitution, the cabinet will be limited to 30 ministers.
Rajapaksa, took to his Twitter account to thank the voters and expressed gratitude to them for placing their trust on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and himself.
Rajapaksa promised the people that Sri Lanka will not be disappointed during his tenure.
Sri Lanka conducted elections for its 16th parliamentary on August 5, the polls saw 71 per cent voter turnout.
Sri Lanka's new parliament is scheduled to convene on August 20.
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