Early results in Sri Lanka’s election show president leading in first poll since war’s end

Sri Lanka: Initial results show president leads

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Early returns Wednesday showed Sri Lanka’s incumbent president ahead of his estranged former army chief in their bitter race to win the country’s first presidential election after its quarter-century war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

In a sign of the sky-high tensions between the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former top general and challenger Sarath Fonseka, a military spokesman said troops surrounded the central Colombo hotel where Fonseka was staying.

About 400 people, including alleged army deserters, were inside the Cinnamon Grand Lake Hotel together with Fonseka, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

“We don’t know what’s their motive and as a protective measure, we have deployed troops around the hotel and people who go in and come out are being checked,” Nanayakkara told The Associated Press. He said that there were no plans to arrest Fonseka.

Both Rajapaksa and Fonseka are considered heroes by the country’s Sinhalese majority for their leading role in defeating the Tigers in their campaign for an independent Tamil state. No major violence was reported during Tuesday’s polling in an election that was seen as a first step in an attempt at recovery after decades of conflict.

Initial results Wednesday showed Rajapaksa leading with 1,125,297 votes compared to 752,850 for Fonseka. But the race was still up for grabs, with millions of votes not tallied. There are some 14 million registered voters, and the overall turnout was around 70 percent.

The campaign was acrimonious from the start, with the general accusing his former boss of entrenched corruption and the president branding Fonseka a dictator-in-waiting.

In an election day surprise, the government announced Tuesday after the polls closed that it would seek court action to disqualify Fonseka because his name was not on voter registration lists, and the candidate himself was prevented from voting.

However, the country’s electoral commissioner later issued a statement saying that Fonseka’s status on the voter rolls was irrelevant to his candidacy.

State media interspersed reports of initial returns Wednesday with songs and programming featuring Rajapaksa, and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told broadcaster Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corp. that the results so far show the president “heading for a historic victory.”

Rights groups have accused Rajapaksa of misusing state resources — including monopolizing coverage on state TV — to bolster his campaign, while the opposition has expressed fears of vote-rigging.

While voting among the Sinhalese majority appeared to be strong, turnout was sparse in some northern Tamil areas, where the most intense fighting drove hundreds of thousands from their homes.

The minority community had been expected to support Fonseka and play a possibly pivotal role in the results.

Rajapaksa campaigned on his war record and his promises to bring development to the nation.

Fonseka promised to trim the powers of the presidency and empower parliament .

Some observers fear that a possible dispute over the results could lead to street protests and violence.

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On The Net:

Sri Lanka’s Department of Elections:

www.slelections.gov.lk/index.html