Mahinda Rajapaksa wins Sri Lanka Presidential election

Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka, has won a second term in office, after defeating his nearest rival, General Sarath Fonseka, former chief of the army and the joint Opposition candidate.

Mahinda Rajapksa, 64, received 58.8% of the total votes polled, according to his office.

This was the first general election held in Sri Lanka after the rebel Tamil separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE) was vanquished in May 2009, after the government and the separatist rebels fought a bitter, 26-year-long war.

While Rajapaksa polled 60 lakh votes, or 58.8% of the total votes cast, General Sarath Fonseka, 59, got 41 lakh votes, or 40.8% of the total votes polled.

Mahinda Rajapaksa has won the presidential elections since a candidate needs only over 50% of the votes to win, sources in the President’s office were quoted as saying.

There was 70% voter turnout when polling for the presidential election held was on January 26, 2010, amidst heavy security to prevent any possible violence.

In addition to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and General Sarath Fonseka, 20 candidates were running for President, but they could not make impact on the outcome of the polls.

On Sarath Fonseka’s allegation that the presidential elections were rigged, sources in the President’s office remarked that the charge is “absolutely untrue” and pointed out that even Ranil Wicremasinghe, former prime minister and chief of the Opposition United National Party (UNP), has maintained that the polls were not rigged.

Ranil Wicremasinghe had told the media that the presidential polls were, by and large, free of any rigging and peaceful.

As the results of the counting came out, supporters of Mahinda Rajapaksa were out on the streets in many part of Sri Lanka, celebrating and bursting crackers.

As the trends of the election result started coming out, tension mounted in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, as heavily-armed troops patrolled around the hotel in central Colombo where Sarath Fonseka was staying.

Later, a military spokesman said the soldiers had been deployed following information that suspected deserters from the army were among about 400 people present inside the hotel. The government, he added, was not sure whether the suspected army deserters were providing security to Fonseka or were associated with him.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had called an early election, 2 years before his 6-year term was to end. This was widely considered as an attempt by Rajapaksa to capitalise on his government’s military victory over the LTTE rebels.