Mahinda Rajapaksa: Sri Lanka's President Wins Decisive Reelection

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa swept to a second term in office, but his chief rival vowed to challenge the results and for hours insisted he was being held a virtual prisoner in a tony hotel surrounded by hundreds of soldiers.

Rajapaksa tried to brush off the election dispute Wednesday, calling on Sri Lankans to unite for the tough task of rebuilding a nation shattered by a generation of ethnic warfare. "From today onward, I am the president of everyone, whether they voted for me or not," he said.

Rajapaksa will now have to face Sri Lankans' growing anxiety over the country's economic stagnation, and he will be expected to tackle the tensions between his Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority that fueled the nation's 25-year civil war.

What had been expected to be a tight election between two architects of the government's victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels last year turned into a rout. Rajapaksa captured 57 percent of the vote in Tuesday's polling, while Sarath Fonseka won 40 percent, according to the election commission.

Rajapaksa's supporters hit the streets in celebration, setting off fireworks, waving Sri Lankan flags and holding up posters of the president.

Fonseka, however, rejected the results and vowed to challenge them in court.

In a letter to the elections commissioner, Fonseka accused Rajapaksa of using the state media to attack him, misappropriating public funds for his campaign and preventing displaced minority Tamils – whose support the opposition candidate was counting on – from voting.

The distraught election commissioner, Dayananda Dissanayake, appeared to agree with some of the allegations. He said the state media violated his guidelines, government institutions misbehaved and he pleaded to be allowed to resign.

"I cannot bear this anymore," he said just before announcing the final tally.

Though there were reports of irregularities throughout the country, there was no evidence to suggest large-scale fraud during the voting Tuesday, said Paikiyasothy Saravanamuttu, of the independent Center for Monitoring Election Violence.

For much of Wednesday, Sri Lanka's capital was tense as hundreds of soldiers and policemen ringed the upscale Cinnamon Lakeside hotel in central Colombo for hours, controlling access, and turning the former general – who had led some of these same troops in battle only eight months before – into a virtual prisoner.

The military presence appeared designed to prevent Fonseka from stirring up opposition protests to the vote, though there was no indication he had the ability or support to overthrow the government by force.

After night fell, Fonseka left the hotel and went to his private residence, said Tissa Attanayake, the general secretary of the main opposition party. Soon after, the soldiers also withdrew.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the scaledown.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said soldiers had no orders to arrest anyone other than suspected military deserters believed to be part of Fonseka's team.

The large margin of victory will give Rajapaksa a fresh boost ahead of parliamentary elections planned for later this year, where he hopes to cement his hold on power, Saravanamuttu said.

But it is the lack of support he received in predominantly Tamil areas of the north – where turnout was extremely low – and his uncompromising stance toward the demands of the long-marginalized minority that signal potential trouble for his next government.

The race between the two men had elements of a classic drama from the start. Both are considered war heroes by the Sinhalese for their role in crushing the rebel's armed struggle for an independent state in the north. They both also stand accused by human rights groups of possible war crimes committed during that fight.

Fonseka was considered the only chance the opposition had of defeating Rajapaksa, but the president's powerful political machine – and his alleged use of state resources, especially state media in his campaign – overwhelmed Fonseka's bid.

And the president remains deeply popular with many Sri Lankans.

"Just as he won the war against terror, we are confident that he will fight the economic war and bring prosperity to the country," said Jagath Dissanayake, a 36-year-old construction worker from Gampaha, north of Colombo. "This is how the public pay their gratitude to a leader who ended a three decades war and brought peace to this country."

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Associated Press reporter Bharatha Mallawarchi contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Department of Elections: http://www.slelections.gov.lk/index.html

Comments

[Lalani Silva]

03:24 AM on 01/28/2010

This election was a farce - in reality, Sarath Fonseka won it by 54%. But the whole country knows by now that the President's brother Basil took over the counting of votes and added votes to ensure that a false result of Rajapakse getting 60% is given out by Elections Commisssioner under threat! The entire election process was shifted to the President's House at Temple Trees. Rajapakse's hue margins are completely unrealistic when you look at voting patterns of traditionally UNP areas such as Colombo and Kandy. The Elections Commissioner was forced to approve the final result under duress - anyone seeing him on TV would have realised that. The army was sent to surround independent media such as Sirasa and TNL so that they are unable to report on what was happening. The country saw what was going on on CNN and BBC. Rajapakse Administration has no mandate from the people - all Lankans know he stole their vote to stay in power. There is no free media and a state of repression and threats. Just this morning, President's brother Defence Secretary threatened the leader of the JVP, a main opposition party, with death. God help Sri Lanka under Rajapakse!

[goodmarina]

11:57 AM on 01/28/2010

What you write is exactly what I hear from various sources / outlets in Sri Lanka. It is, indeed, a sad day for Sri Lanka.

[Shanthy]

10:33 AM on 01/27/2010

Minorities and Sinhalese elite reject the rough-to- ready Rajapakse anarchy, though they were fiercely intimidated in the elections ( withless than 30% turnout in North and East).

In Sammanthurai, predominatly a muslim area in the East had Gen Fonseka getting 55.9 per cent and Mr Rajapaksa mere 4.42 per cent.

What do these elections mean to Tamils. This is another Sri Lankan election since independence where Tamils are not counted and ethnic racism is the main force behind the winner, like always.

Tamil voters were intimidated by three and a half hours of bomb blasts, from the Palaly military camp before they bagan heading to polling stations.
Paramilitary allied with the ruling party was seen distributing 'boycott elections' pamphlets to the voters. The voter turnout was a less than 30% of the nation's overall of 74%. Over 80% of polling cards were also not distributed in some parts of the region.

Just another election and jubilation with Tamils disenfranchised.

[menike1]

10:37 PM on 01/27/2010

Everyone regardless of ethnicity who was eligible was able to vote. If the Tamils do not elect to vote, as they did under the LTTE, it is their choice and can not be blamed on any other communuity. The LTTE did not subscribe to democratic votes, theirs was a facist dictatorship. The LTTE represented by the Tamil National Alliance supported General Fonseka hence the vote reflects the LTTE position which is division of the country which has been rejected by the majority of the population including the Tamils, the majority of whom live outside the north and east in all parts of the country. To claim that the Tamils are not counted is therefore completely false and reflects the writers support of the LTTE which was militarily defeated in May 2009 and now by the electorate in 2010. He forgets that democracy in one person one vote, Because the majority has once again defeated the LTTE and their representatives it is incorrect to claim that the Tamils are disenfranchised. LTTE supporters such as the writer will consider themselves "franchised" only when they get what they want which is the "disenfranchisement" on all of Sri Lanka's non LTTE supporting Tamils.

[goodmarina]

11:56 AM on 01/28/2010

Can you leave the Tamily victimization song aside long enough to discuss the fact the recent elections hurt the entire nation?

While it is true that tamils have suffered thanks to the climate created by the LTTE, you need to be intellectually honest and admit that tamils hold prominent positions in all branches of government and are wealthy home & business owners throughout the island. There is a large concentration of tamils who live and worship in harmoney in many suburbs of Colombo (the capital).

It was not just tamils that were supressed this election cycle -- sinhala voters were as well.