The General Secretary of the United National Party (UNP), Palitha Ranga Bandara, has stated that President Ranil Wickremesinghe will enter the presidential election with 7,000,000 votes.
He made these remarks during a discussion with a weekly newspaper.
“In the 2020 general election, the UNP received 445,000 votes. Therefore, they need to secure an additional 6,550,000 votes. This means they would need to get 318,000 votes from each district. However, the number of registered voters in areas like Vavuniya and Trincomalee is not sufficient to meet these numbers,” he said.
Bandara highlighted that Sajith Premadasa received 5,400,000 votes when he was with the UNP. After leaving the party, he only garnered around 2,700,000 votes. This number includes votes from figures like Diganambaram, Mano Ganesan, Rauf Hakeem, Vadivel Suresh, and Radha Krishnan. The votes from the Tamil community are shifting away from Sajith, and most representatives from the eastern regions are now aligning with Ranil.
“This implies that Sajith Premadasa’s votes have likely decreased further from 2,700,000. Additionally, a significant number of people who previously supported Sajith are now working with the UNP,” he noted.
“In the last election, Ranil received 250,000 votes. Due to the division within the party at that time, 2,700,000 potential votes were not cast. However, now that these voters have reunited with the UNP, Ranil’s campaign is starting from 3,000,000 votes. Even though Pohottuwa secured 3,900,000 votes out of 6 900,000, Ranil will achieve his target with 7,000,000 votes,” he added.
