Inside election and political stories from the Chandrika years

At the election, the ruling People's Alliance (PA) managed to secure a majority of the seats in the Gampaha district while the UNP was merely able to score victories in the Wattala and Negombo electorates.

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Though the UNP had suffered a setback, the election was a personal triumph for Karu. To his surprise, he had won the preferential vote race by becoming the UNP candidate from the Gampaha district with the most number of preferential votes, a staggering 237,387.

While UNP stalwarts Anura Bandaranaike, Dr Jayalath Jayawardena, John Amaratunga, Joseph Micheal Perera, Edward Gunasekara and Suranimala Rajapaksha were also elected to parliament from the district, they had all received less than 100,000 preferential votes. I was humbly pleased about receiving such a large number of votes at the very first parliamentary election I contested...” Karu says.

Not only did Karu surpass his party colleagues, but he was also able to receive more votes than Susil Premajayantha, the PA district leader and the former Chief Minister of the Western province. The 165,905 preference votes he received paled in comparison to Karu's 237,387.

Nevertheless, the PA was able to once again emerge victorious in the parliamentary elections held that year. The ruling party secured 107 seats in parliament while the UNP only laid claim to 89. In a surprising turn of events, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which held only one seat in parliament till 2000, was able to increase it to 10.

But the PA's win was to be bittersweet. "It was tragic news..." Karu says recalling the incident. The country went into mourning after it was announced that Sri Lanka's former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike had died at age 84 after suffering a heart attack on October 10, 2000, the very day of the country's parliamentary elections.