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UNP sweeps CMC winning 60 out of 119 members
The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), the biggest prize at the 2018 Local Government (LG) Elections, was won comfortably by the United National Party (UNP) last week. A total of 119 members were elected to the Council under the new electoral system, which is more than double the number under the previous one.
Rosy Senanayake visits College House on election day to cast her vote. Pic by Sameera Weerasekara
The CMC has 394,044 registered voters. According to statistics released by the Elections Commission, 292,003 of those voters cast their ballots on Feb.10, of which 7,023 votes were rejected.
The UNP won the CMC with 131,353 votes (46.09% of the total vote), which gives them 60 members in the Council. The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) came 2nd with 60,087 votes (21.08% of the total vote), giving them 23 members. The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) was 3rd with 31,421 votes (11.03% of the total vote), giving them 12 members in the Council. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) gained 10 seats with 27,168 votes (9.53% of the total vote). The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) mustered 14,234 votes (4.99% of the total vote) and gained 6 members.
Victory in the CMC also gave Colombo its first female Mayor in the person of Rosy Senanayaka. A former MP and State Minister, Mrs Senanayaka was last attached to the Prime Minister’s office, before being named UNP nominee for Mayor of Colombo.
In another interesting turn of events, former Minister Ravi Karunanayaka, who was much derided by those in the Opposition and within his own Party, over his alleged links to the Treasury Bond scandal, was one of the few UNP MPs in the country to emerge unscathed at the LG Election. While many UNP MPs could not even hang onto their seats, the UNP emerged victorious in every ward in Mr Karunanayaka’s electorate of North Colombo.