SB heads for record preference count
By Kelum Bandara and J.A.L. Jayasinghe
UNP National Organiser S.B. Dissanayake said last night that he was heading for a record percentage of preferential votes gained by any candidate at an election.
Speaking to Daily Mirror by phone from Kandy, Mr. Dissanayake said that of the preference votes counted by that time, he had more than 78 percent of preferences from the total number of votes polled by the UNP in the Kandy district.
“I have so far obtained more than 183,000 preferences, and the votes are still being counted.
It is a record. Earlier, this record was held by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga. However, she polled less than 65 percent of preferences,” he said.
The total number of votes polled by the UNP in the Kandy district is 237,827.
In the meantime, his brother Saliya Dissanayake who contested the election under the UPFA’s betel symbol has topped the list in the Nuwara-Eliya district.
His other brother Jayalath Bandara Dissanayake who contested the election on the UNP ticket in Nuwara-Eliya has also been elected.
Meanwhile, S. B. Dissanayake yesterday accepting the results of the Central and North-Western Provincial Council elections said the majority of the people in the two provinces had voted for the war.
Addressing the media at the Janaki Hotel in Kandy Mr. Dissanayake said voters in the Central Province had decided that he was the most popular figure among all candidates at the election.
“I will always be in politics. This election result is no barrier for my political future. I will never join the government or the UPFA. I will not abandon the people who rallied around me,” he said.
He added that the government indiscriminately used state resources and the propaganda machinery to obtain this victory. “This is an election where the state resources are used in an extreme manner. However, we are not just accusing the government. The election was held freely.
This is a victory for President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The President personally led the campaign from the President’s House in Kandy by making use of the government machinery,” he said.
“The people voted for the war. We are also not against the war. We also blessed the war to defeat terrorism. However, we hold the view that a comprehensive proposal to devolve power should be introduced at the end of the war.
“The government is wasting and robbing public property and resources. The economy in the central province has come to a standstill. Answers to these problems should be immediately found after finishing the war.
“No development work had taken place in the Central Province. We were able to educate the public about these issues at this election. It is the UNP that can give answers to economic problems in the country,” he said.
He further thanked the people who voted for the UNP and all those who supported the party during the campaign. “We will not forget them. We will protect them always,” he stressed.
If UNP won he would be the CM... no matter what happened at Hanguranketha. 
