Colombo: Sri Lankan ex-president's hopes of a comeback to the nation's power corridors were shattered as Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday conceded defeat even before the official announcement of the results.
The Rajapaksa-led UPFA (United People's Freedom Alliance) was defeated by the United National Party (UNP), led by incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Talking to the AFP, Rajpaksa said, “My dream of becoming prime minister has faded away. I am conceding. We have lost a good fight.”
“We have won eight districts and the UNP [ruling United National party] has 11 [out of a total of 22]. This means we have lost. It was a difficult fight,” the AFP quoted Rajapaksa as saying.
However, a tweet from the former president's Twitter account refused to "accept victory or concede defeat" before the election commission's official announcement.
Mahinda Rajapaksa hasn’t yet received official final results of #GenElecSL to accept victory or concede defeat. #SriLanka
— Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) August 18, 2015
Rajapaksa’s defeat comes just seven months after he had lost snap presidential poll in January to his cabinet minister Maithripala Sirisena, who is the current president.
Sirisena called the elections as the "most peaceful general election in Sri Lankan history".
The official election results are expected to be announced by midday today, Mahinda Deshapriya, the head of the Department of Election, told media.
Sri Lanka's Parliament has 225 members and party or coalition must win at least 113 seats to form a government.
