Uvais Mohamed Imitiyas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uvais Mohamed Imitiyas^[1] is the Mayor of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Effectively unelected, he assumed office on a technicality. Imtiyaz was a Three Wheel Auto Driver from an impoverished background who contested local government elections on an independent ticket.^[2] At that stage he had no realistic chance of being elected. However, technical electoral issues (proposing an underage candidate in the list) meant that the UNP candidates led by Sirisena Cooray could not run under that symbol (the elephant). An agreement was reached to use the symbol of Imitiyas's group on the condition that he would renounce the seat if elected. UNP led by Cooray campaigned for the independent group and they won under the spectacles symbol, but Imitiyas reneged on the agreement and remained in office.