COLOMBO, 4 April 2004 — President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s political alliance held a strong lead yesterday in parliamentary elections, though with votes still being tallied it seemed unlikely the party — a bitter foe of current peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels — would capture an absolute majority.
The Friday election, fought largely over the direction of the talks, saw a string of election irregularities that could put off the announcement of final results — and so the official announcement of which party would form the new government — for as much as a week, officials said yesterday.
The government election commissioner was meeting today with officials of the major parties to discuss the reports of voting fraud. Depending on the outcome of those talks, voters might be called to cast their ballots again next week in two areas. Only when those votes were tallied would the final count be announced.
“Nearly 24 hours after the election, we are still unable to complete the process because of certain incidents,” Election Commissioner Dayanada Dissanayake told reporters. He gave no specifics.
While the vote went far smoother than most in Sri Lanka, where election violence and fraud are common, there were numerous reports in some areas of voter intimidation and the stuffing of ballot boxes.
Despite the slowed results, the United People’s Freedom Alliance of President Chandrika Kumaratunga was confident that it would emerge the winner over her longtime rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
“The alliance has received the people’s mandate to form the next government,” said Harim Peiris, Chandrika’s top aide. “This is a clear repudiation of the prime minister and his government.” The president herself is elected in a separate election, and will remain in office until 2005 no matter the results.
Even if the party fails to win the necessary majority of 113 seats in the 225-seat Parliament, Peiris insisted it would be able to forge a ruling coalition. Part of her support, he said, was her approach to the peace talks.
“Clearly the president has been critical of the way the prime minister has been handling the peace process, and I think the people have probably agreed,” Peiris said.
Earlier yesterday, the Election Commission said that with 6 million votes counted — or about two-thirds the total votes cast — the president’s party had captured 47 percent of the vote, against 37 percent for the prime minister’s United National Front.
A political party led by Buddhist monks tallied 6 percent, while a pro-Tamil Tiger party had 6 percent.
That count had given 47 seats to the president’s party, 32 to the prime minister’s and three to the Buddhists. Because of the Sunday meeting, the release of further election results was halted last night until after those discussions.
A Chandrika victory would almost certainly mean a shift in the direction of the talks, as the president, who survived a 1999 Tiger assassination attempt, has long distrusted their insistence that they want peace.
