RIYADH: Sri Lanka’s first postwar presidential elections ended at 4 p.m. on Tuesday with the government challenging the candidacy of one of the two main contenders, former army chief, Gen. Sarath Fonseka, who aspires to defeat incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Election observers said that the election was held in a free and fair manner with a voter turnout of over 70 percent. Over 14 million voters were eligible to vote at 11,098 polling centers island-wide.
Counting commenced with postal votes at 6 p.m. Postal vote results from the island’s Ratnepura district were the first to be announced Tuesday evening. They showed Rajapaksa leading with a 69.53 percent share of the votes; Fonseka was way behind with 30.46 percent.
Fonseka also suffered severe embarrassment for not being able to personally cast his vote, a problem he blamed on his name being omitted from the 2008 electoral register, which was used for the poll. “The government authorities have purposely removed my name from the electoral register. My name is not on the 2008 list and therefore I could not vote,” he said. “The government is trying to use this incident to mislead the public at the last minute,” he added.
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Fonseka could be disqualified. “We are seeking a court order on the suitability of this candidate because he is not eligible to be declared a candidate,” said Bogollagama. The minister said the government is seeking the legal way to rule Fonseka out of the race despite the election commissioner saying that a candidate does not need to be a registered voter to contest elections. Bogollagama said the government would challenge the election commissioner in the courts.
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said that the presidential candidate could not be disqualified just because his name was not in the voters’ register.
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said the election, when compared to previous polls, was conducted with the least number of incidents. There were 34 incidents of violence in several parts of the island on the election day, including minor explosions in the recently liberated northern province in which a number of people were injured.
