Ranil’s UNP won the 2001 general election without the majority needed to form a government. The UNP won 109 seats in 2001. In the 2001 general election, the UNP polled 45.62% of the votes in Sri Lanka. Ranil took over a negative economy.
The economy had sunk to the bottom. Chandrika was in the presidential chair. Ministers were sworn in before her. She led the cabinet. Since she had the power to dissolve parliament within a year, even the people who voted for the UNP were afraid that the government would collapse at any moment.
As soon as Ranil came to power, he signed a ceasefire agreement with Prabhakaran, and the JVP, with the support of the SLFP, formed two political movements called the Protect Motherland Movement and the Patriotic National Movement and took monks to the streets and held demonstrations and protests across the country. Ranil was increasing taxes to boost the economy. The date for the local government elections was set for March 2002. Exactly 4 months later.
Party leader Ranil only attended the Colombo meetings for the local government elections. He handed over the election campaign to Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya and S.B. Dissanayake, who joined the UNP from the SLFP. There was an agreement that the leaders should be inactive during the local government elections because the president was from one party and the prime minister was from another party.
But in the local government elections, the UNP won all the local government institutions except for four or five local government institutions. The UNP won almost 60% of the vote. In the 1982 referendum, Attanagalla, the birthplace of the Bandaranaikes, was allegedly defeated due to mob violence. But for the first time in Sri Lanka’s political history, the UNP won Attanagalla without violence. Attanagalla was the President’s constituency at that time. Mahinda lost all the local government institutions in Mahinda’s Hambantota district. The UNP achieved this victory by facing a strong opposition backed by presidential power. It won 217 out of 222 local government institutions.
The 2002 local government election is reminiscent of the local government elections that the National People’s Party faced today.
The JVP faced this election with a government with a two-thirds majority and an executive president. The opposition had been swept away. So much so that powerful leaders of the SLPP and the opposition, former powerful ministers, withdrew from the general election without contesting.
The JVP had won 61.56% of the general election. Under the proportional voting system, no party had won a two-thirds mandate, and the JVP was the only party to win two-thirds under the proportional voting system. The Rajapaksas made up two-thirds by fishing away opposition MPS.
In this local government election, the opposition did not hold public meetings outdoors for fear that people would not come. They held meetings in halls. Only the JVP held public meetings outdoors. President Anura attended all those meetings. Usually, in the history of local government elections in Sri Lanka, presidents attend meetings only for a select few. But Anura considered this local government election as a presidential election and a general election. He considered it his election.
Everyone thought that the JVP would win all local government institutions in Sri Lanka, including the North-East, by more than 60%. JVP Secretary Tilvin said that they would get more than 70% of the votes in this election. Prime Minister Harini said that she would get more votes and more votes than the presidential election and the general election.
The JVP called the 2024 general election a “shramadana” to uproot 76 years of corrupt politicians, or weeds. The JVP called this year’s local government elections the burial that will end a 76-year curse.
The outcome is entirely consistent with established electoral patterns. Throughout Sri Lanka’s democratic history, local government elections conducted within a 6-month window following both presidential and general elections invariably result in a decisive mandate for the presidential victor’s party. This pattern reflects the natural consolidation of political capital, wherein the governing party traditionally builds upon its general election performance, surpassing both vote count and percentage share achieved during the presidential contest. Such results merely affirm the will of the electorate and reinforce the democratic mandate already bestowed upon the administration.
Mahinda contested the 2005 presidential election and secured 50.29% of the votes. The 2005 presidential election was held on November 17, 2005. Exactly 4 months after that, the local government election was held. Mahinda secured more than 55% of the votes in that local government election. He won 225 out of 266 local government institutions. That means he won about 83% of the local government institutions. Mahinda secured 50.29% in the 2005 presidential election. Accordingly, Mahinda secured a resounding victory. That was without the JVP. JVP contested the 2005 presidential election without Mahinda. The JVP contested separately. When Mahinda won, he was not the leader of the SLFP, even though he was the President. He did not have a majority in Parliament.
Ranasinghe Premadasa won 50.43% in the 1988 presidential election. Exactly 3 years later, in the local government elections, he increased that percentage of votes and won all the local government institutions. He won all the districts in the South and the Anuradhapura District, which he did not win in 1988.
Mahinda won the 2010 presidential election with 57.88% of the vote. Exactly one year later, in the 2011 local government elections, he won 56.45%. That was a year after winning the presidential election and the general election. It is normal for a government to lose popularity after a year.
The 2004 general election was held in April 2004. The provincial council elections were held in July. The United People’s Freedom Alliance, led by Chandrika, won 46.60% in the April 2004 election. In the local government elections held in July, the United People’s Freedom Alliance, led by Chandrika, won 57.68%.
Then how did the JVP, which won National elections creating history by winning the presidential election and wiping out the traditional politics of the country in the general election, which is a laborious task, and had polled 61.56%, slide down to 43.26% in 6 months?
How did he lose more than 2.4 million votes?
This is an unbelievable analysis. Anura and co. used the sacred tooth relic, the Jewel of Sinhala Buddhists, exposition to gain political advantage in the election. Did he make a fool of himself with a Galle face to show that there is no opposition in Sri Lanka today? Did he go to Vietnam in the middle of the election to show that he is a great Sinhala Buddhist leader?
The hidden winner of this election is Sajith Premadasa. Everyone thought that this small election would bury Sajith’s politics. At the May Day rally held in Talawakele a day before the election, the National People’s Power Party, the United National Party, and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna all attacked him for leaving the meeting early. But the people proved that he is the only alternative and the only alternative leader ready to take power in Sri Lanka.
Usually, in a small election held 6 months after a presidential or general election, it is natural for the opposition to lose votes. That’s how the wave goes. But this time, all the opposition parties, including Sajith’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya, gained votes by swimming upstream of that wave.
‘What happened to Anura…?’
When Anura became president, he emulated Ranil Wickremesinghe until the local government elections were called. He discussed it this with businessmen. The JVP portrayed him as an IMF hero. He talked about being a friend of the IMF and the loans given to him by the World Bank.
After the local government elections were called, Anura emulated Mahinda Rajapaksa. He organized the Dalada Exhibition and went to the Vesak celebrations in Vietnam to become a Sinhala Buddhist leader like Mahinda.
People elected Anura to simply be himself. Yet ironically, JVP members supported Anura as a sanitized version of Wijeweera rather than embracing his more controversial aspects, ultimately revealing that Anura failed to understand his own political identity.
