In Sri Lanka, President Maithripala Sirisena has asserted that he would bring some drastic changes to the government after his rival alliance led by former President Mahinda Rajapakse won majority seats in local body elections. <br/><br/>In a meeting on Sunday, Mr. Sirisena reportedly said that the people of the country have voted for a change and he will respond positively to their message as soon as possible. <br/>Earlier, the alliances backed by President and Prime minister suffered major setbacks in results of local polls held on Saturday. <br/><br/>The alliance led by Rajapakse won 44.65 percent of total seats while United National Party led by PM won 32.63 percent of seats. <br/><br/>The biggest defeat was for President alliance who got around 13 percent of seats only. Mr. Rajapkse alliance has held the results as a referendum against the government and asked for government to resign. Elections were held all over the country to elect 8,325 candidates for 340 Local Government bodies.<br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports, after his victory, President Mahinda Rajapakse and his team has called for resignation of government and calling of General elections. <br/><br/>However, as per amended constitution, General elections cannot be called before February 2020 unless 2/3rds of MPs approve to dissolve the Parliament, which is unlikely. <br/><br/>Prime minister's party accepted defeat at the elections saying it is a warning and party will bring appropriate changes. <br/><br/>All eyes will be on President Sirisena in coming days on what changes he brings to the cabinet and whether he steers the government to a new direction."