A joint opposition alliance has won the election held on Saturday to choose general assembly representatives for the Eppawala Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society, defeating the incumbent National People’s Power, Hiru News reported.
The poll filled 113 general assembly seats across 13 regional branches. The joint opposition took 59 and the NPP-aligned group 53.
An unusual alliance
The line-up is what makes the result worth noting. The NPP contested as a single group. Against it stood a combined slate drawn from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the United National Party — four parties that oppose each other at national elections, running together at branch level.
Multi-purpose co-operative societies run rural retail outlets, grain purchasing and distribution of subsidised goods, and their general assemblies elect the boards that control them. They are small bodies, but they are among the few contests held between national election cycles, and their results are read locally as a temperature check.
Where it sits
Eppawala is in Anuradhapura District, the same district in which both major camps spent the weekend campaigning. The SLPP held its “Janasatana” rally in Anuradhapura on Saturday, the day of the co-operative vote, and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake addressed two NPP rallies in the same district on Sunday.
Not reported
The two seat totals sum to 112, one short of the 113 seats Hiru says were being filled; the report does not account for the remaining seat or say whether any branch result was uncontested, tied or withheld. It does not give a turnout figure, a breakdown by branch, or the previous composition of the assembly — so the size of the swing away from the NPP cannot be established from the report.
Hiru does not name any candidate or the outgoing board, say when the new general assembly convenes or elects its board, or carry comment from either the NPP or any of the four opposition parties.
This report is single-source. A search of the Daily Mirror, NewsFirst, the Island, Daily FT, Colombo Gazette and EconomyNext found no other outlet carrying the result; Ada Derana was unreachable behind a CloudFront block.
