By President Wickremesinghe is emerging as a formidable candidate. On the other hand, the SJB and the NPP have also emerged very strong.
Wickremesinghe has failed to engineer mass crossovers from the SJB, and now he has the support of Lotus Buddy’s, who are not that popular.
The failure of Ranil Wickremesinghe to get SJB parliamentarians on his side is a clear indication that the SJB MPs have confidence in their leader Sajith Premadasa, who polled 5.56 million votes (42%).
It is a well-known secret that some of the SJB parliamentarians who were on the verge of crossing over have now backed off and settled with Sajith Premadasa.
Neck-to-neck competition
Given the intense battle and neck-to-neck competition posed by the NPP and Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, it is rumored that the SJB campaign team is devising a plan to obtain the second preferential vote from those who would vote for Ranil Wickremesinghe. This is a real possibility because there is a large group of undecided voters who might decide to vote for Ranil Wickremesinghe as the first preference and Sajith Premadasa as the second. This is because there is little or no fundamental difference between Sajith and Ranil other than operational matters and outlook.
The NPP and Anura Kumara Dissanayaka don’t have the luxury of canvassing for a second preference vote.
In the electoral history of Sri Lanka, the second preference has never been counted, but there is nothing that could not happen in Sri Lankan politics.
