In an island wide survey carried out by the former Peradeniya University Social Sciences Faculty Professor Sisira Pinnawala, it has been revealed that if UNP’s Karu Jayasuriya contests the presidential election; he would be able to easily defeat the SLPP candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
The Professor said that according to the survey, in the event Gotabhaya Rajapaksa contests the presidential election and the UNP fields Sajith Premadasa, the latter would be placed in third place.
The Peradeniya team had split the voters into 8 zones for the survey and in regation to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s popularity Karu Jayasuriya leads in seven of the 8 zones while Sajith Premadasa leads in only 4.
The Colombo megapolis area, Homagama, Pannipitiya, Maharagama, Kotte, Kandy, Galle, Matara Kurunegala, South, Wayamba, North Central and the Gampaha predominantly rural Buddhist areas, Monaragala, Hambantota and
North Wayamba areas which are economically backward, North Eastern areas with predominantly Tamil populations, Eastern bloc predominantly consisting Muslims, Internal areas of the country with majority Muslim populations and
the coastal areas consisting of mostly Christians were included in this survey.
Sisira Pinnawela made these revelations at a media briefing at Rajagiriya.
He noted that Karu Jayasuriya has a better chance of winning in predominantly Muslim and Christian areas.
This survey was carried out based on the assumptions that the SLFP would not field a candidate, the UNP would not split irrespective of who the candidate would be and that the minor parties would not field a candidate.
(Mirror)