PM says polls vote for peace

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 March 2002, 21:19 GMT]
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe Thursday said that the majority of the people in the south have accepted the government's peace efforts and have given their consent to make it a success. Meanwhile the veteran trade unionist and the national organiser of the Democratic Left Front, Mr.Vasudeva Nanayakara said, "local government elections have greatly undermined the leadership of President Chandrika Kumaratunge."

Mr.Nanayakkara, a former parliamentarian added that the results marked the deterioration of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) with the number of votes it polled showing a dramatic decline.

The United National Front polled 3.69 million votes (57.8 percent) in Wednesday's local government elections, while Kumaratunge's People's Alliance obtained 2.07 million votes (32.5 percent).

The Sinhala nationalist JVP, which hinged its election campaign on denouncing the peace agreement, polled 6.5 percent of the votes.

Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe, in a statement thanking the voters following the landslide victory, said "the people have given the mandate empowering the UNF government to move forward with its peace process and develop the country."

"The people have endorsed the government's policy of adopting non-confrontational politics," he added.