Colonbo: Sri Lanka’s strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa staged a political comeback on Friday as his party registered a landslide victory in the twice-postponed general elections, according to the final results released by the elections commission.
The official results declared showed that the Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP) alone had won 145 seats and with its allies have 150 seats, a two thirds majority in the 225-member parliament.
Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya, who won a presidential election in November, need a two-thirds ‘super majority’ to carry out promised constitutional changes.
Human Rights Watch voiced “serious concerns,” however, about the Lebanese judiciary’s ability to investigate.
The group said it has documented previous instances in which the judiciary failed to uphold the rule of law or conduct a thorough inquiry. It added that there’s evidence some judges knew ammonium nitrate was stored at the port and did nothing about it.
“If officials did in fact have notification of a clear threat to life and failed to take reasonable steps to address that threat, then they are responsible for the unlawful deaths,” HRW said.
