Sri Lanka's ruling party gets coveted Colombo mayorship

Colombo, Jun 16 (PTI) Sri Lanka’s ruling National People’s Power (NPP) on Monday won the coveted Colombo Municipal Council with its candidate being elected mayor following a secret ballot.

The NPP’s Vraie Cally Balthazar was elected with 61 votes against her main opposition rival Riza Zarook, of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), who polled 54 of the 117 votes cast by members. Two votes were declared invalid.

The outcome was decided after a stormy inaugural meeting lasting nearly two hours, chaired by the local government commissioner.

The parties, having strongly debated the need to have a secret ballot to elect the mayor, finally agreed.

In the election held on May 6, the NPP won only 48 members, far short of the 59 needed to form the council.

The opposition jointly claimed they had secured more votes than the NPP, accusing the party of trying to cobble a coalition to annexe the council.

The NPP, which won the presidential and parliamentary elections last year, has now won the coveted Colombo Municipal Council for the first time in the history of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the NPP’s mother party.

The election on May 6 saw only 160 of the 338 councils having parties winning majorities.

The ruling NPP of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the larger number of councils outright.

Administrations of the balance 178 councils have been formed through alliances. PTI CORR GSP GSP