Thaindian News

By M.R. Narayan Swamy
New Delhi, Jan 28 (IANS) Defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka should not leave Sri Lanka as he needs to answer “a lot of allegations against him”, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother said Thursday.

“He should remain in the country,” Basil Rajapaksa, who advises the president on political affairs, said in a telephonic interview, a day after incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa trounced former army chief Fonseka in one of the most hotly contested presidential elections in Sri Lanka.

“He (Fonseka) has to answer the people. We have a lot of allegations against him,” the younger Rajapaksa told IANS from Colombo.

He did not say what the charges were, who had levelled them, and whether Fonseka, who is not even an MP, would face trial and, if so, when.

Asked to comment on statements that Fonseka feared for his life, Basil Rajapaksa thought for a moment and answered: “No… I don’t think so.”

In results declared Wednesday in a virtually straight presidential contest, Mahinda Rajapaksa scored an easy win securing 57 percent of the votes over Fonseka’s 40 percent - a margin over a million votes.

Fonseka has alleged irregularities in the high-pitched electoral battle, the first in Sri Lanka after the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009. Fonseka and Rajapaksa were once friends.

They fell out after Sri Lanka’s military crushed the LTTE and wiped out its leadership. Rajapaksa accused Fonseka of getting too big for his boots. Fonseka alleged he was being sidelined and humiliated.

Basil Rajapaksa also said the government would examine why Fonseka got more votes in the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka’s northeast, where the LTTE met its end in a military campaign that also killed a large number of civilians.

In the Tamil heartland of Jaffna, Fonseka got 63 percent of the votes compared to the president’s 24 percent. Fonseka also led Mahinda Rajapaksa in all other parts of the northeastern province.

In contrast, the Sinhalese-majority areas in the rest of Sri Lanka voted mainly for Rajapaksa who had claimed credit for destroying the Tigers.

“Well, our mandate (in Tamil areas) was better than last time (2005),” said Basil Rajapaksa. “I can understand (the reasons). We will look into the reasons. We will rectify whatever went wrong. We will try to win the hearts and minds of the people there.

“We hope to work very closely (in this region). I hope people will take the correct decision in (upcoming) parliamentary election. I am very positive it will happen. In the east at least we will get most parliamentary seats.”

Basil Rajapaksa credited his brother’s victory “to the rural majority in Sri Lanka”. He went on: “During the past four years, we have developed rural areas. That is one reason they voted for us.

“Also, by voting for the president, people have proved they want democracy. They don’t want anarchy. They don’t want dictatorship. So they rejected Fonseka.”

Basil Rajapaksa also accused Fonseka of pursuing a negative campaign, “from the beginning to the very end”.