It was President Premadsa who introduced the preferences for voting. says Vajira Abeywardene

He further said a change is needed to move the country forward from the current situation. As the United National Party, we hope to make that change. As a first step towards that, we hope to hold a party convention and change the party constitution. The country needs it. In 1987, the Constitution was amended. As a result, we lost power. Some say that Mr. JR Jayawardena introduced the preferential voting system. It is completely wrong. The PR system was introduced by Mr. R. Premadasa. If you look at the Galle Municipal Council, the first person on the list became mayor in the 1979 election. The second became the deputy mayor. There was no preference system. One preference is that there was voting according to the policy of the party. All other political parties are like that. Anyway, our party conference in 1987 was held at Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium. At that time, the parliament was called, and the constitution was changed. Accordingly, the preference system was introduced with three preferences. The Sinhalese were divided. The Tamils were divided. Muslims were divided. Divided by religion. Divided by caste. race