There is every possibility that the UNP and its partners in constituting the new government might interpret the people’s will as a mandate to implement the plans spelled out in its election manifesto. That would be missing much of the point
An election, in many ways, is like an exam. You have to work hard for years before facing it. You have to study the curriculum carefully, paying close attention to detail while keeping an eye on the bigger picture. You have to apply yourself diligently during the actual time of taking the test. In the end, however, you are subject to the vagaries of your examiners.
The election only just past, in many ways, was like the very ‘A’-Level Exam it interrupted. The victors (who were erstwhile losers at many prior tests) had evidently worked hard at it for years. They had been sowing the seeds of their present success with a cross section of demographics (which paid rich dividends in the end). They had studied the syllabus for several terms out of power and one term in office, and were ready to face a tough invigilation this time round. Those who emerged victors had no doubt applied themselves in the run-up to the election, and demonstrated their mastery of both the issues at stake and the electors at hand. It was not these to-be victors who were subjected to the vicissitudes of the examining electorate, but those losers who had failed to study well and hard enough to pass muster.
Thus electorates can be tough test-paper setters, although many politicos had begun to take them for granted under previous sub-democratic regimes. Our electors have long memories – longer than semi-tyrants would like. And shorter flashes of gratitude for favours granted. War-winning governments are often voted out no sooner than wars are won (as Churchill’s government knew). Churchill himself, home-tutored, was a poor exam-facer in an earlier incarnation as a student. As he eloquently groused on being flunked: “My examiner and I were ill-matched. I would much rather have had it so that he could experience the extent of my knowledge. But he was more than determined to expose my ignorance.” The runners-up at the recent polls might share some of these sentiments, at the same time as conceding defeat.
So to the victor belong the spoils. Let us add our voices of congratulation to the chorus of well-wishers. Also in our (appointed? or arrogated?) role as this island’s watchmen, let us stand behind you as you mount your ceremonial chariot in your moment of triumph – and whisper in your shell-like ear that “you too are mortal, O Caesar”. There is a time for victors to indulge in celebrations and there is a time for those invested with ‘power’ (read ‘responsibility’, O republicans) to return to the business of governance. Lest the thrill of victory degenerate into the agony of defeat down the long hard five-year road to delivering results on promises made, let us on behalf of the people you now represent with a clearer, fuller, mandate, share our heart with you – as you did with us in the hustings. 
The exam is over, the real test has begun. In school or college or varsity, the real test is usually the hard work of the next term or the hard truth of real life in the world out there. In politics, it is the arresting fact that the polity just voted out your predecessors for failing to deliver on promises made… or making promises – whether to family and friends and foes – that did not resonate (or no longer resonate) with the electorate. That you face the same prospect if you fail to learn from the lessons of contemporary history is a lesson that it is not too soon to learn.