Smooth presidential election, Tamil vote key
Colombo (AsiaNews) – Vote counting has begun in Sri Lanka to decide who will be the country’s next president. Voters cast their ballot between 7 am to 4 pm today to choose among 22 candidates, 17 running under a party banner and five independent. This is the country’s sixth presidential elections but it is the first after years of civil war that pitted the largely pro-independence north against the country’s armed forces.
Early exit polls indicate that incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka who defeated the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) lead the pack.
The Election Commission announced that the election ran smoothly without irregularities or any major incident.
Sources told AsiaNews that most people in the north voted for the challenger because General Fonseka embodies a desire for “change”.
Some minor incidents were recorded in the north, none involving any major act of violence. This is a sign that people have reached a good level of maturity and want to close the book on three decades of civil war.
The vote count began at 6 pm (GMT +5:30) and results should be in by the end of the night or early morning. Election monitors reported more than 70 per cent turnout for the country as a whole, but less than 20 per cent in some parts of the north and the east.
About 14 million voters were eligible to vote at 11,098 polling stations. Almost 68,000 police officers were deployed to ensure the integrity of the process. There have been no complaints of fraud.
An early survey by AsiaNews shows that most Tamil, Sinhala and Muslims in north and northeast have voted for General Fonseka. For them, Fonseka represents hope in a true and lasting peace and a solution to the country’s ethnic division. Minorities hope to play a key role in shaping the president’s choices.
In order to be elected, a candidate must get 50 +1 per cent of the vote in the first round; otherwise, a runoff election will be necessary.
On Election Day, the challenger, Fonseka, was involved in an odd incident. His name was not on the voters’ registry when he went to vote. State TV said this meant that he was not eligible to run for office, but the Election Commission intervened right away to confirm that he could still be elected to the highest office in the land even if he, personally, did not cast a ballot.
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told the media that today’s presidential election was a peaceful one.
Minister Maithripala Sirisena, who is the general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, said that voters turned out in droves, adding that he was certain of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s victory.
Rohana Hettiarachchi, executive director of the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), said the election was conducted in a free and fair manner, except for a number of minor incidents.
The Center for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) reported some small blasts in Jaffna, with no one injured.
Similar reports came in from Batticaloa, on the east coast, were elections went smoothly with only minor incidents.
A hand grenade was reportedly thrown in the early morning against the residence of Sri Lanka Freedom Party coordinator in Uduppidi (Velvettithurai).
The national coordinator of the National Election Monitoring Centre Rasanga Harischandra said the poll was extremely peaceful and the turnout was high.
At the end of the day, the Election Commission heaved a sigh of relief. Over the campaign, it had received numerous reports about irregularities and violence, involving postal voting, the intervention of serving military officers in the political campaign and the misuse of state resources and state media by the incumbent
As late as this afternoon, many people got text messages on their mobile urging them to vote for Rajapaksa, something that turned off many voters.
CMEV officials have recorded 365 major incidents, including 99 assaults (27 per cent) and 108 cases of threats and intimidation (29 per cent). In addition, there were 242 violations of the election law and 239 personal attacks for a total of 952 incidents.
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