In a letter to the President, Mahinda Rajapakse of the SLFP pointed out that although the party had won in all five councils its voting percentage had shown a marked decline and demanded remedial measures. On the contrary the left wing Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP) had significantly increased it support base, he said.

The letter which was seen in ruling party circles as an act of dissent demanded that the party high command specially look into the reasons why Muslims and Tamils deserted the SLFP, which has proposed a landmark autonomy package for the North-East, and voted for the UNP.

Similarly a large number of Indian Tamils from the tea estates in central Sri Lanka voted for UNP. He said of 3.30 lakh votes, about six per cent of the votes polled have beenrejected which showed an increasing number of people were deliberately cancelling their votes out of disenchantment with the mainstream parties.

Factors that went against the ruling party were a large hike in prices of essential commodities and its failure to initiate development programmes he said.

Kumaratunga's alliance has won 45.26 per cent votes in the polls to the five provinces whereas the UNP polled 42.55 per cent.