Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday accepted defeat in the parliamentary elections, ending his bid to stage a political comeback as prime minister.
"My dream becoming prime minister has faded away. I am conceding. We have lost a good fight," Rajapaksa told Agence France-Presse. "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 69-year-old two-time president, however, later backtracked from his conceded defeat statement and said that he was unlikely to lead the next government, according to New York Times.
Mahinda Rajapaksa hasn’t yet received official final results of #GenElecSL to accept victory or concede defeat. #SriLanka
— Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) August 18, 2015
The incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, 66, claimed victory in the general elections held on Monday after Rajapaksa conceded defeat.
"The majority of the people of this country have approved the continuance of good governance and consensual politics endorsed by the people through the silent revolution of 8th of January," Wickremesinghe said in a statement, according to Daily Mirror.
"There should not be a division amongst people as winners and losers. We should get together as the sons and daughters of our motherland to the task of building a new political culture in this country. We have to unitedly work towards lifting the nation to a new height by facing challenges of the new era," the victorious prime minister stated in the statement.
Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) emerged as the single largest party, and an UNP-led alliance for good governance (UNFGG) emerged as the single largest political bloc with 108 seats in Sri Lanka's 225-member Parliament, according to Indian Express. The UNP won at least 11 of the 22 electoral districts with Rajapaksa's UPFA winning eight districts.
