Colombo, Jan 26 (DPA) Polling in Sri Lanka’s presidential election ended Tuesday with a turnout of more than 70 per cent as heavy security was deployed to prevent violence.
Election observers reported sporadic incidents of violence and intimidation but said they did not disrupt overall polling.

The election was a face-off between the two main candidates, who both take credit for the defeat in May of the Tamil separatist rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). President Mahinda Rajapaksa, 64, representing the ruling United People’s Freedom

Alliance, is competing against his former army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, 59, who is backed by four leading opposition parties.

Five minor explosions in northern Sri Lanka early Tuesday ahead of the voting lowered turnout in the region to less than 20 per cent, but the rest of the country reported brisk polling in the first national election since the LTTE’s defeat, election officials said.

The blasts occurred in the Jaffna Peninsula, which was a major battleground in the government’s 26-year war with the LTTE, but there were no reports of casualties, said residents in Jaffna, 396 km north of the capital, Colombo.

Police confirmed they heard the blasts but said they did not have reports of any violent incidents.

Election officials said the average turnout across the country was more than 70 per cent, according to provisional figures made available soon after polling ended. The final figure could reach 80 per cent or more after all figures are tabulated, they said.

Voting began at 7 am at about 11,000 polling stations with 14 million people registered to vote. Polling ended at 4 pm.

“I am sure that I will be the winner,” Rajapaksa declared after voting in his hometown in Medamulana, Hambantota, 280 km south-east of Colombo.

During the final hours of voting, the ruling party claimed Fonseka would be disqualified from the race because he was not a registered voter, but Fonseka and legal experts said voter registration was not a requirement to contest the election.

“That is a last-minute, desperate attempt to misguide the voters,” the general said. “I am confident that the voters will elect me.”

Twenty other candidates also were running but were unlikely to make an impact as the race narrowed down to a close contest between Rajapaksa and Fonseka.

The opposition has also vowed to end corruption and what they call a family dictatorship after Rajapaksa appointed relatives to government posts.

Allegations of misuse of state power, including the use of government vehicles, the state media and officials for his re-election campaign were levelled against Rajapaksa while the president’s camp criticised Fonseka for lacking political experience.

The six-week run-up to the elections was marred by violence, including four deaths.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Gamini Nawaratne, head of the police election secretariat, said more than 900 election complaints were received during the campaign. More than 250 more incidents were reported during polling.

Local and foreign election observers warned of the possibility of violence interrupting the election, and about 70,000 police backed by the armed forces were deployed to provide election security.

Widespread violence failed to materialize, but observers said that some voters were prevented from casting their ballots, and shootings and attacks on rival political supporters were reported around the country.

Rajapaksa called an early election two years before his six-year term ends in what was widely believed to be a move to capitalise on the government’s military victory over the rebels.

The counting of ballots had already commenced in some of the counting centres while in some areas the ballot boxes were being transported under tight security.

Preliminary results were to be released after midnight, and final results were expected by Wednesday morning.

A heavy police and army presence was placed in key towns, on main roads and at areas where violence occurred during the voting to try to prevent post-poll unrest.