#PresPollSL Did people in the North opposed MR? Was MY3 elected by the eelamists?

The former president Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing his supporters said that President Maithripala was elected by the eelamists. So I looked at the numbers. In 2010, when MR was elected for the second time, Northern province casted 72,894 votes for MR and 184,244 to the main challenger Sarath Fonseka. These numbers changed to 108,831 (MR) and 394,991 (MY3) in the 2015 election. More than 35,000 new votes were casted to MR in the 2015 election. This number is about 15% of the total new votes (241,618) casted in the 2015 election. MY3 got 87.2% (yes it adds up beyond 100% due to all the other candidates receiving lesser votes and due to an increase in the rejected votes). Let’s compare the same numbers with the Galle district votes.

In 2010 Galle district casted 386,971 votes to MR and 211,633 votes to SF. These numbers changed to 377,126 (loss of 9,845 votes) to MR and 293,994 (gain of 82,361 votes) to the main opponent MY3. At the same time total new votes casted in 2015 election in the Galle district is 72,941. Therefore as percentages MS received 113% votes with respect to increased number of votes and MR lost 13.5% votes with respect to the new votes casted in the 2015 election.

It is clear from the above numbers that while MR was gaining ground in the Northern Province (~15%) he was losing ground (~13.5%) in the Galle District.

This trend of opposition candidate gaining grounds is visible in all the districts. I think it is time that the former President start getting help with someone who knows the result of 2 divided by 2 and look at the numbers compiled by the department of elections. There is a clear mandate to MY3 from all over the country. I will work on numbers for other districts and post from time to time.

This was originally posted by me at: https://www.facebook.com/notes/muditha-d-senarath-yapa/did-people-in-the-north-opposed-mr-was-my3-elected-by-the-eelamists/10155065303670453