Rajapaksa Is President for Second Term

Incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa has won Sri Lankan presidential vote for the second term, reported Reuters quoting state-run Rupavahini television.

“The president has recorded a remarkable victory, with a more than 1.8 million vote majority,” Rupavahini said, report said.

Official final results were not due for another three hours, but polling showed the incumbent with a powerful lead over his chief opponent, former army commander General Sarath Fonseka, said report.

Earlier, reports said that Rajpaksa registered victories in 32 out of 39 constituencies where ballots have been tallied.

Trend showed that Rajapaksa was leading by nearly a million votes, sweeping the elections except for northern and eastern part of the country, where Tamils dominate, said report.

The two war victors – Rajapaksa and Fonseka – turned to foes in a bloody campaign that culminated with polling on Tuesday, with turnout that independent observers placed at between 70 and 80 percent of the Indian Ocean island’s 14 million registered voters, reported Reuters.

Fonseka, a political neophyte, delivered an election day shock by admitting he was not registered to vote, after saying he may have done so but did not want to say where for security reasons, said report.

The winner will take the reins of a $40 billion economy which has enjoyed a partial peace dividend, and is on the path to recovery with big Chinese and Indian investments into infrastructure and plans to put $4 billion into development.

In 2004 elections, Rajapakse had won the presidential vote by only 1,70,000 votes.