Winner Rajapaksa sends troops to ring rival’s hotel

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been re-elected but his principal rival and former general Sarath Fonseka, ringed by troops in a hotel, rejected the result and his aide spoke of seeking protection from a “neighbouring country”.

The Election Commission said Rajapaksa bagged 57.8 per cent of the vote to Fonseka’s 40 per cent but appeared to echo the Opposition’s concerns.

Rajapaksa, who sought a second term on the promise of ushering in peace after decisively winning the civil war against the LTTE, has got one million votes more than that in 2005. He came close to the record of 62 per cent, won by his predecessor Chandrika Kumaratunga in her first election in November 1994.

Rajapaksa has improved his vote share across the country, except in the Tamil-majority north, the mixed-population east and the central hills. The Jaffna and Vanni Tamils, who stayed away with barely 20 per cent casting their votes, did not add much to the tally of Fonseka.

But Fonseka refused to accept the result and told the electoral commission in a letter that he would initiate legal proceedings to have the vote annulled.

In the letter, he accused Rajapaksa of using the state media to attack him, of misappropriating public funds for his campaign and of preventing displaced minority Tamils from voting.

The distraught election commissioner, Dayanada Dissanayake, appeared to agree. He said the state media violated guidelines he had crafted, government institutions behaved in a way that embarrassed him and he pleaded to be allowed to resign his post.

“I request to be released,” he said just before he announced the results. “I cannot bear this anymore.”

As the result came in, troops surrounded the Cinnamon Lake Hotel after about 400 people, including alleged army deserters, gathered inside with Fonseka, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. The troops remained there throughout the day.

“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 there were no plans to arrest Fonseka.

Mano Ganesan, a close aide to the former army chief, said: “I am going to meet a diplomat of a neighbouring country to seek assurances of Fonseka’s safety,” apparently referring to India. New Delhi, which shares a good rapport with Rajapaksa, has congratulated the President on the poll victory.

To India, the re-election of Rajapaksa means continuity with change, and its main concern will be how to wean him away from China and also get him to play fair by the estranged Tamils.

But for India’s refusal to bail the LTTE out towards the closing stages of the battle — which coincided with the Lok Sabha elections and which led to Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi upping the ante and at one time going on a short fast — the Sri Lankan forces would not have won the war. In the run-up to yesterday’s elections, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance leaders had visited New Delhi and conveyed to foreign ministry officials the reason for their decision to support Fonseka. New Delhi chose not to react but watch the unfolding drama.

With the LTTE decimated, Rajapaksa advanced the election, as he had got elected solely with the Sinhala vote last time. This time, he wanted to give the Tamils also a chance to take part in the democratic process.

Guided by the short-sighted alliance and feelings of hurt, the Tamils threw in their lot with the losing general, who polled more votes than Rajapaksa in Batticaloa’s Padiruppu Kalkudah divisions and the Pottuvil division in Digamadulla (Ampara) district. The same trend was discernible in Sammanthurai.

These areas have a sizeable Tamil and Muslim presence, and they had felt alienated by Rajapaksa’s statement that in post-war Sri Lanka, there would be no division on ethnic or majority-minority lines. All would be identified as Sri Lankans.

In the central hills, Indian-origin Tamils working in plantations in Kandy who were swayed by the Ceylon Workers’ Congress, rooted for the President, while the Sinhala vote was divided.
Top