The National Freedom Front, led by former minister Wimal Weerawansa, won 5 parliamentary seats in Sri Lanka’s general election earlier this week.
The party ran on the UPFA’s platform and five candidates from Matara, Kalutara, Moneragala and Colombo will now be in parliament.
Mr Weerawansa, who is a close ally of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, received the highest number of any UPFA candidate in Colombo’s 16 polling divisions, with 313,801 preferential votes, second behind Ranil Wickremesinghe who won 500,566 preferential votes.
In fact, the preferential vote results show that although the prime minister topped the list, he is followed by four candidates of the UPFA, including the leader of another hardline constituent of the UPFA alliance, the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya’s Udaya Gammanpila, who came third with 198,818 votes.
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