The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) questions the logic behind the Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna trying to topple the Government based on the results of the Local Government elections when it has actually obtained only 40% of the total valid votes, while the coalition which rallied under the Swan symbol at the 2015 Presidential election together had received 51% of the votes.
Refuting the figures released by private media organisations on the national total of the party vote, JHU General Secretary Minister Patalee Champika Ranawaka said the media had failed to take into account the total valid votes received by the Independent Groups who contested the polls.
“This major flaw has resulted in wrong calculations on the total result,” he said.
According to the JHU, the correct percentage of the total votes received by Pohottuwa is 40.66%, not 44.65% as earlier announced by the electronic media.
The percentage of the total votes to the UNP should be 29.40%, not 32.63% and the SLFP’s percentage should be changed to 12.38% in place of the earlier figure 13.38%. For the JVP it should be 5.8% and not 6.27%.
The incorrect figures were released when the calculations took into account 11,069,417 as the total valid votes; it is the total votes to the SLPP, UNP, SLFP, UPFA, JVP and ITAK. The correct total valid votes should have been 12,214,901.
Minister Ranawaka said the most important fact here should be that MP Mahinda Rajapaksa has obtained only 40% of the total valid votes and he is talking about toppling governments with this number.
Reiterating that the people have not deviated from the 2015 mandate based on the 2015 elections, he said that the current coalition government has got 42% of the total votes and the members of the 2015 UNF coalition have secured 51% in total.
He said the two main parties must get together to bring political stability to the country with the help of the minor parties.
The Election Commission, when contacted by the Sunday Observer, said it was not the norm to issue a national result for Local Government elections and that it was not in a position to refute or endorse the JHU or the private media figures of the national result.