Rajpaksa close to becoming Lanka President for a second term

COLOMBO - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken a substantial 60 percent lead in the country’s sixth presidential election, leaving main rival former army chief General Sarath Fonseka behind.

Rajapakse has won in 32 of the 39 constituencies where ballots have been tallied.

As per the latest results, Rajapaksa is leading by almost a million votes. Except for the northern and eastern part of country, where Tamils dominate, Rajapaksa has swept the elections in other regions.

The final result will be declared later this afternoon.

Rajapaksa, who won by only 1,70,000 votes in the 2004 election, is doing very well in south and Central Sri Lanka, but not that well in the East and North which are the Tamil speaking regions.

The counting of the votes for the presidential election began on Tuesday night a few hours after voting came to an end.

The voter turnout was close to 70 per cent with over eight million people exercising their franchise.

Voting was largely peaceful though there were reports of violence in the Tamil-dominated city of Jaffna. (ANI)