Thaindian News

Colombo, Jan 27 (IANS) Mahinda Rajapaksa, who defied the odds to vanquish the Tamil Tigers last year, was Wednesday re-elected Sri Lankan president with a thumping majority as the opposition cried foul and main challenger Gen Sarath Fonseka found himself under siege with his hotel surrounded by the army.
Rajapaksa defeated the former army chief by a handsome margin. Rajapaksa won 5.5 million votes, or 57.81 percent of the total vote, while Fonseka got 40.21 percent, according to a tally of the results announced so far.

“The president’s victory has been secured,” said an official from the Presidential Secretariat.

A statement purportedly issued by Fonseka’s office alleged that the election had been systematically rigged.

“All the election results released so far have been manipulated. Do not trust the results being presented to you as election results. These are not official results,” the statement said.

As the vote count was on in the first presidential election since the Tamil Tigers were crushed after 26 years of bloody war, heavily armed soldiers took up positions at the Cinnamon Lakeside hotel where their former chief Fonseka was staying.

“We can see about 200 army personnel outside the hotel, but they have not come into the hotel so far,” a witness at the scene told DPA.

The hotel is one of the five-star hotels in Colombo adjoining the air force headquarters.

Responding to intense speculation, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakakra said that there were no attempts to arrest Fonseka.

“We have information that there are as many as 400 former army soldiers,” said Nanayakakra. “We want to check about their presence and whether they want to create any problems.”

Fonseka, who commanded the army to crush the rebels, told NewsX channel: “…Their (Sri Lankan government) plan is to deploy troops around my house, my office, the broadcasting corporation, the national television station and if he (President Rajapaksa) loses, the instruction he gave to army commanders and the security council, is to take me into custody…and he will not hand over the power.”

“Yeah… they have already surrounded … this is part of that operation … that’s why we left our house, residence and office and came here … all the opposition leaders … they are threatening my security peoples and they have tried to enter the hotel, we managed to push them back …”

Commenting on his fear of assassination, he said: “I am not afraid, but I know that is their plan… we will fight back…”

The island’s sixth presidential election was held largely free of violence Tuesday with turnout estimated to be over 70 percent except the Northern Province which had been under the control of Tamil Tiger rebels for decades before it was recaptured by the troops in May 2009.

The department of elections said 14,088,500 Sri Lankans were eligible to cast their votes at 11,098 polling stations from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. to choose their next president mainly from Rajapaksa and Fonseka, though there are 22 candidates.

Rajapaksa called the election two years ahead of schedule to capitalise on his popularity among the majority Sinhalese after ending the island’s bloody ethnic conflict.