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First election results from Sri Lanka's southern town show victory for ruling UNF

Xinhua, August 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

irst election results from Sri Lanka's southern town show victory for ruling UNF

COLOMBO, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) - First parliamentary election results released by Sri Lanka's Department of Elections for the southern town of Galle showed a clean victory for the ruling United National Front (UNF), led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Results released by the Elections Department showed that the UNF had obtained 33,798 votes while the main opposition United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) obtained 19,613 votes.

Sri Lanka's Marxist party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) obtained 4,777 votes.

During the 2010 parliamentary elections, the opposition UPFA had won the Galle district with over 20,000 votes while the UNP had secured over 14,000 votes.

Initial postal vote results released in the early hours of Tuesday for the eastern town of Trincomalee also showed the UNF leading with 5,212 votes while the UPFA polled in second with 2, 894 votes.

However postal results for the southern coast of Hambantota which is a strong hold of former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse saw the UPFA leading with 8441 votes and the UNF with 5955 votes.

More election results are expected to come in during the early hours of Tuesday.

Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections were held on Monday to elect a new government in the island nation. The main power for battle is between the two main political parties, the UNF led by Wickremesinghe and the UPFA which includes Rajapakse as its main candidate.

The winning party is expected to be announced later on Tuesday. Endit