Fonseka - kept the nation in the dark about this biggest fraud on the people

The Sri Lankan presidential election on Tuesday was unexpectedly peaceful but the main challenger to the President, Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa, in this election was himself not a voter.

The common Opposition candidate, Mr Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka’s former Army chief, conceded on Tuesday evening that he does not have a vote, thereby ending the day-long suspense about why he had not turned up at the poll booth while the President was among the early voters.

A US green card holder, Mr Fonseka and his coalition, which includes the UNP leader and former prime minister, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the Tamil National Alliance, “kept the nation in the dark about this biggest fraud on the people”, said the independent presidential candidate, Mr Sarath Kongahage, demanding an “unconditional apology” from the Fonseka coalition

In fact, Mr Kongahage had moved the Sri Lankan Supreme Court earlier this month seeking the disqualification of Mr Fonseka from the presidential race since he was a US green card holder with an intent to migrate to that country as a full-fledged US citizen, and that meant his loyalties rested more with the US than with Sri Lanka.

The ex-General “is keeping his green card in case he loses the presidential election and is chased out of the country,” said Mr Kongahage in his court petition.

Sources said the Rajapaksa camp is consulting legal experts to move the SC against Mr Fonseka in case he wins the poll.

However, Mr Fonseka insisted that he was “fully qualified” under Article 31 of the Sri Lankan Constitution to contest even though he was not a voter. He had registered himself in the 2008 voter registration list but had not received a voter card and his name was not included in the voter list. “I am a citizen of this country, which is why I was the Chief-of-Defence Staff and the Army commander,” he said.

Supporting him, the former SC chief justice, Mr Sarath N. Silva, a member of the Fonseka team, pointed out that Article 31 of the Sri Lankan Constitution stipulates that any Sri Lankan citizen “qualified” to vote in the election could contest in it, and there was nothing to disqualify Mr Fonseka as a voter.

The Election Commissioner, Mr Dayananada Dissanayaka, also backed this view citing the Constitution.

A minister from a breakaway Muslim group said the ex-General was “part of an international conspiracy” against Sri Lanka.

Should the ex-General win, Mr Rajapaksa’s followers could explode in anger, accusing him of “cheating” the electorate by withholding information that he is not a voter.

Meanwhile, Mr Fonseka “disappeared” and it was left to Mr Wickremesinghe to handle the media at his poll office.

“We are keeping the General in a safe place after we got information that the government is planning to arrest him. The military has moved four armoured vehicles into the city,” Mr Asanga Gunaratne, a Fonseka aide, told this newspaper.

The counting of votes began almost immediately after polling ended around 4 pm. The ballot boxes were transported to 160 polling divisions from the approximately 11,000 booths across the country.

The results will begin trickling in by midnight and the winner will be announced on Wednesday.

Poll observers said about 70 per cent polling was seen in the Sinhala south, while only about 20 per cent of the Tamil electorate turned up to vote in Jaffna.