Sri Lanka's former president Mahinda Rajapakse accepted his defeat in the parliamentary elections held on Monday but said that he would work as an opposition member of the parliament.
AFP quoted Rajapaksa as saying, "My dream of becoming prime minister has faded away. I am conceding. We have lost a good fight."
According to reports, the former president accepted that the United People's Freedom Alliance had lost the election even before Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya could announce the final results.
The Elections Commissioner is expected to release the final party positions on Tuesday. Preference votes secured by individual candidates would be announced later.
According to the election monitoring groups and election officials Monday's parliamentary election was the most peaceful in the recent history.