An opinion on the UNP victory in the CMC

The Mahinda Rajapaksa government in Sri Lanka, put an enormous amount of resources and grossly abused state resources and committed a large number of election related violations, including the aggressive campaigning that took place in the last three days which was against the law.

Despite this huge outlay of resources and the threats that UNP candidates would go to the other side within hours of making such statements, none have done so far. I would recommend they take the Rs10M offered to shift and go and then after a period of a month they can return, just aggravating the payers of the bribes in Colombo. So against all the odds, Colombo was unshakably in the UNP camp despite some last minute tense moments before the result were announced. Furthermore, it was a humiliating reminder for Milinda Moragoda that his days in politics are history and he could better serve the country as an independent thinker providing unbiased information for public consumption and debate. 

Whilst Mano Ganeshan's party got many votes from the Tamil community which resulted in 6 seats in the CMC, it is incumbent upon Ranil Wickremasinghe to play hardball, and not push the dues from the UNP mainly for the Tamil vote that Ganeshan received. If this tough talking is done, he will come into the UNP fold like a pussy and then a 30 seat team will be unassailable.

I am glad therefore that the voters would not buy the lies of the government and were more able to  balance the situation and either not vote as the turnout was quite low in the end, or vote for the victor as their conscience so pleases.

It is now important therefore to build upon this victory as soon as possible  so that the path for a return to Government of the UNP can return sooner rather than later. UNP has still not lost the monker of the largest single party in Sri Lanka and can therefore use that as a base to garner votes to the UNP in the future. In Sri Lanka the voter can be very fickle and it is incumbent upon the UNP leadership to get the maximum they can to contribute to the party's future growth from those in politics and thinkers who are outside.