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Rise and fall of parliamentarians
By Chandani Kirinde
The preference votes of many of the leading candidates at the April 2 general elections had dropped considerably when compared with the number of votes they received at the December 2001 polls but there were also several others who increased their personal vote bank.

The leader of the United National Party and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe was one among many other UNPers who polled much fewer number of preference votes at this election. In 2001, Mr. Wickremeasinghe received 415,686 votes but this dropped to 329,524 this year showing a reduction of more than 85,000 preference votes.

A similar fate befell two other leading candidates from the Colombo district, one of them was Milinda Moragoda who received 134,132 preference votes in 2001 but could only muster 99,146 in 2004 and while the other was Ravi Karunanayake who while in 2001 collected 129,893 received only 69,975 this year.

Former Education minister Karunasena Kodituwakku received 78,093 votes in 2001 polled considerably less this year with 38,540 not sufficient even to enter Parliament.

A similar situation was seen in the Kalutara district too with Mahinda Samarasinghe who received 108,583 votes in 2001 was only able to manage 93,758 votes and Rajitha Senaratne's 102, 919 votes in 2001 reduced to 97,001.

In the Gampaha district the 265,160 votes polled by Anura Bandaranaike in the 2001 general election was reduced to 198,444 votes while UNP's deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya too receiving fewer preference votes this time when compared with the number of votes he received at the previous election. In 2001 Mr. Jayasuriya polled 250,912 votes and this year it was down to 202,029.

Two UNPers who received an increased number of preference votes were Joseph Michael Perera and John Amaratunge. In 2001 Mr. Perera received 86,659 votes was able to increase it to 95,231 this year. Mr. Amaratunge received 82,326 votes in 2001, received 86,141 this year.

In the Matale district, Alick and Ranjith Aluvihare the father - son duo were the only UNPers to be elected to parliament but they too received a significantly lesser number of preference votes. Alick Aluvihare who received 76,620 votes in 2001 received only 39,649 this time while his son Ranjith who earlier had received 72,953 votes at the previous election received 47,152 votes this year.

In the south too there were many such casualties. The preference votes polled by Mahinda Wijesekera saw a drop from 95,378 to 72,563, Amarasiri Dodangoda from 78,697 votes to 60,282 and Sajith Premadasa from 92,536 votes to 82,968.

At this year's general election there were several parliamentarians who were elected to parliament with an increased number of preference votes. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse’s vote bank increased from 81,855 votes in 2001 to 107,603, Vajira Abeywardena from 110,055 votes to 126,037, Mangala Samaraweera from 105,992 votes to 118,745, Hemakumar Nanayakkara from 78,590 votes to 81,382 and Chamal Rajapakse from 48,473 votes to 56,416.

In the Puttalam district, Palitha Ranga Bandara's 69,167 votes in 2001 decreased to 40,284 and Neomal Perera's from 59,805 votes to 45,156 while D.M. Dassanayake and Milroy Fernando two of their main opponents received more votes this year. Mr. Dassanayake's preference votes increased from 47,100 to 55,775 and Mr. Fernando's increased marginally from 35,128 to 36,545.

Some of the other senior UNP members whose preference votes decreased were W.J.M. Lokubandara from 80,543 votes in 2001 to 56,954 and Rukman Senanayake from 73,594 votes to 43,630.

The former PA, now UPFA members increasing their vote banks were Ratnapura's Pavithra Wanniarachchi's 84,173 preference votes in 2001 increasing to 125,592 votes, Nimal Siripala De Silva's from 85,273 votes in 2001 to 96,799 votes and John Seneviratne's from 64,685 votes to 84,284.

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