Craig McGuckin said....., page-37

It is not a clear win which is the key. That would have have forced the pres to give the pm position to Rajapakse as he he is still popular within his party. Remember this is not for presidency but to c whether the pres who is from the same party would have enough opposition within it to be forced to nominate rajapaksa as pm. Whatever the outcome now the pres will not nominate the former. In essence in a way the election run by the pres is to weaken his own party enough to enable the opposition to have more sway and to continue reform and crackdown on previous regime. The rajapaksa story with corruption is still to come (think of it as a back up) as overseas agencies have been utilised to track down the flow of misappropriated funds.