The Hindu : Front Page : Over 70 per cent polling in Sri Lanka presidential poll

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Wednesday, Jan 27, 2010
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Over 70 per cent polling in Sri Lanka presidential poll

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Ruling combine to challenge Fonseka’s candidature as he has not enrolled as a voter

COLOMBO: More than 70 cent of the 14 million-plus voters exercised their franchise in the sixth Sri Lankan presidential election on Tuesday. The polling was held from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The counting of postal ballots commenced at 8 p.m. and of the other votes after 10 p.m. in 88 different centres. The final result could be expected by Wednesday afternoon.

The first result has gone in favour of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. According to the Election Commission office, in Ratnapura district, the President has polled nearly 69 per cent of the postal votes. In Monaragawa district too, he is leading in postal votes.

The highlight of the day was the ‘discovery’ that the Opposition consensus nominee, General (retired) Sarath Fonseka, had not enrolled himself as a voter. At a hurriedly convened news conference, senior Ministers and leaders of the ruling combine accused him of taking the people for a ride and said they would move the apex court challenging his eligibility to contest, despite the fact that the Election Commission had ruled his nomination papers to be in order.

Given the high stakes involved for Mr. Rajapaksa, who is seeking a second term two years ahead of his first tenure, and General Fonseka, the peaceful poll came as a big relief to the people of the island nation.

Acknowledgement that the voting was calm came from the former Army Chief at a news conference. He said there was ‘unusual enthusiasm’ among the voters.

Mr. Rajapaksa cast his vote early in the morning at the Madhumalana Rajapaksa Maha Vidayalaya polling centre in Hambantota.

In contrast to the high turnout in the majority Sinhalese south, polling in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, parts of which were under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the last election, was poor.

In the presidential polls in 2005, the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who contested on United Party Freedom Alliance ) ticket, obtained 4,887,162 votes (50.29 per cent) and the United National Party candidate and Opposition leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, secured 4,706,366 votes (47.43 per cent). Mr. Wickremesinghe lost mainly due to LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran’s diktat to Tamils to boycott the election.

Now, political and diplomatic observers are pleased that the election was tension-free, particularly given the apprehensions expressed by the Opposition in the last few days of large scale violence and rigging.

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, Director, Campaign For Free and Fair Elections, an NGO monitoring the elections, said there were six minor incidents before polling began.

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