Gotabaya Rajapaksa greets supporters in Colombo, Sri Lanka.                          --Photo Xinhua

Gota wins presidential election, extends olive branch to all

SRI LANKA (The Island/ANN) -- President elect, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on Sunday pledged to fully assist the Election Commission in holding elections. He made this statement at the Elections Secretariat, where the official results of Saturday’s presidential election were declared.
Rajapaksa obtained 6,924,255 votes (52.25 percent) while Sajith Premadasa obtained 5,564,239 (41.99 percent) Rajapaksa secured a victory margin of over 1.3 million votes. Jathika Jana Balawegaya candidate, Anura Kumara Dissanayake obtained 418,553 (3.16 percent) votes, not enough to save his deposit.
Gotabaya also emerged victorious in Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Moneragala, Ratnapura, Badulla, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Gampaha, Kandy, Matale, Polonnaruwa Colombo, Kegalle and Anuradhapura districts.
Premadasa congratulated Rajapaksa and urged him to respect the institutions established by the present government. “This election was free and fair because we appointed independent commissions. I urge the new president to respect and strengthen them.
Rajapaksa, while thanking the people who voted for him extended the olive branch to all others and said, that he would act as the President of all Sri Lankans.
“I am the President of all Sri Lankans; those who supported me and those who voted against me. I won’t make any distinction between various ethnic and religions communities and I will implement all that I pledged in my election manifesto.”

(Latest Update November 19, 2019)