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Some big names lose at Presidential poll
By Chandani Kirinde
Several Cabinet Ministers, Deputy Ministers and some senior UNP MPs were among those who lost their electorates at the closely contested Presidential poll.

Among the big losers were Minister D.M.Jayaratna who lost the Gampola seat, Minister Sarath Amunugama - Galagedera and Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva - Badulla. Among the deputy ministers who lost their seats were Jayaratna Herath - Kurunegala and Mahindananda Aluthgamage - Nawalapitiya .

Several prominent UNP MPs including G.L.Peiris (Moratuwa), Mahinda Samarasinghe (Kalutara district), Rajitha Seneratne (Kalutara district), Sajith Premadasa (Hambantota), Gamini Lokuge ( Kesbewa) and Jayalath Jayawardena (Ja-ela) were among those whose electorates went in favour of the newly elected President Mahinda Rajapakse.

All of the 21 electorates in the southern districts of Hambantota, Matara and Galle went in favour of Mr.Rajapakse except for the electorate of Galle which was won by the UNP by a majority of about 3,000 votes.

In the Jaffna district where polling was at an all time low, the UNP candidate got the few votes that were cast except in Kayts – the seat of Minister Douglas Devananda – where Mr. Rajapakse polled 139 votes against 98 for Mr.Wickremesinghe.

In all three electorates of the Vanni district, Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu, Mr.Wickremesinghe secured a majority of the votes polled.
In the Nuwara Eliya district in which the UNP candidate had the support of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), the party candidate secured the majority vote in all four electorates while in the Badulla district too Mr.Wickremesinghe won all nine electorates except Wiyaluwa.

Mr.Rajapakse won by a majority all the 14 electorates in the Kurunegala district except Hiriyala and Kurunegala. In the Puttalam district two of the five electorates --Puttalam and Chilaw --went to Mr.Wickremesinghe, while Mr.Rajapakse secured victory in Anamaduwa, Nattandiya and Wennapuwa.

In the Ratnapura district, Mr.Rajapakse won five electorates and Mr.Wickremesinghe won three while in Kegalle, Mr.Rajapakse won six electorates and Mr. Wickremesinghe won three.
In the districts of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, Mr.Rajapakse secured a comfortable win in all ten electorates.

In the Batticaloa district, Mr.Wickremesinghe won all three electorates, Kalkudah, Batticaloa and Paddirippu. In Trincomalee district, two seats went to the UNP candidate and one seat to the UPFA candidate.
In the Digamadulla district, Mr.Wickremesinghe won three seats while Mr.Rajapakse won the Ampara seat.
In all the three eastern districts, Mr.Wickremesinghe secured the support of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress.

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