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Vote wisely, Rajapaksa tells people

COLOMBO: Amid concerns over sporadic incidents of violence and a furious debate on the need for a switch-over from the all powerful Executive Presidency to a model akin to India in the run-up to the January 26 Sri Lanka presidential poll, the election battle is gathering momentum.

The outcome of the contest, mainly a fight between President Rajapaksa and the Opposition consensus candidate, the retired General Sarath Fonseka, is being watched keenly within and outside the island nation for a number of reasons. It is the first such mass democratic exercise in the post-Prabakaran Sri Lanka and much is at stake for all stakeholders in the ethnic conflict which has eluded a solution.

On Friday, both the camps raised the pitch. While Mr. Rajapaksa, seeking a second term two years ahead of his first tenure, talked about threat posed by “secret pacts” to the unity and integrity of the island nation, campaign managers of the retired General Fonseka complained of the ruling combine carrying out “an aggressive and systematic programme of online forging, hacking and identity theft to discredit our campaign.”

In an interaction with the local media, Mr. Rajapaksa has promised to “reduce unnecessary powers” of the Executive Presidency, born after the then President, J.R. Jayawardene, got the Parliament to approve a new Constitution in 1978.

A report posted on the Presidential Secretariat web site quoted Mr. Rajapaksa as urging people to vote wisely to protect the victory and to beware of local conspirators who were hatching plans with the aid of certain international elements to destabilise the country once again.

Pitch-forked into the centre stage with the support, on one hand, of the two parties diametrically opposed to each other — the main opposition United National Party led by the former Prime Minister, Wickremesinghe, and the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) — and the other, the post-Prabakaran Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the former Army Chief is in the thick of a no-holds barred campaign targeting Mr. Rajapaksa and his family.

The alleged deals of corruption, poor governance, nepotism and improper handling of the issues triggered by Eelam War IV, including the re-settlement of the 3 lakh displaced are the pet themes of the retired General.

Mr. Rajapaksa so far mainly focused on issues of development.

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