COLOMBO: Incumbent Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a second term on Tuesday, defeating former army chief Sarath Fonseka with a 57.9 percent vote, but the defeated candidate immediately called on the election commissioner to annul the vote citing Rajapaksa’s misappropriation of public funds during his electoral campaign.
Rajapaksa won 6.01 million votes, 1.84 million more votes than his rival Fonseka, according to the Elections Commission. An estimated 70 to 80 percent of voters participated in the election.
People were seen on roads lighting firecrackers and distributing kiribath (milk rice) to celebrate the victory. Some were going in convoys of vehicles waving flags and shouting slogans praising the re-elected president.
Accepting the results of his victory, Rajapaksa told reporters that it reflected the choice of the people. “As president, I will treat all people alike irrespective of party politics,” Rajapaksa added.
He also said he plans to seek a new mandate to develop Sri Lanka by exploiting its geographically strategic position to encourage foreign investment.
Rajapaksa called the election two years early, hoping to capitalize on his postwar popularity to win a second six-year term.
In 2005, Rajapaksa obtained 52.29 percent of the votes in the presidential polls against Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said that some areas were largely out of his control to manage, including Puttalam, Anuradhapura and Matale.
Dissanayake lamented the state media violated guidelines he had crafted and government institutions behaved in a way that embarrassed him. He pleaded to be allowed to resign. “I have served seven years more than my (initial) term and I have to leave now,” he said.
For his part, Fonseka called on Dissanayake to annul the outcome of the vote. Fonseka has accused Rajapaksa of using the state media to attack him, of misappropriating public funds for his campaign and of preventing displaced minority Tamils whose support the opposition candidate was counting on from voting.
The defeated general, who is at a hotel in Colombo surrounded by the military, urged Rajapaksa to give him security guarantees to leave the hotel.
The general said he feared for his safety and did not want to leave until the government assured his security.
“I feel they intend to arrest me and question me on leaking military secrets. I want the government to ensure my safety,” he said.
He told reporters that there are more than 1,000 army officers and 500 policemen guarding the hotel.
“They asked me to send 13 military police officers out for some inquiry and when they exited the hotel all were handcuffed, humiliated and arrested by the police,” the general said.
He also said that the government has sent him a letter requesting him to return all the 70 security personnel and their vehicles.
“These facilities were bestowed on me by virtue of my service to the nation as an army general,” he said. “I cannot believe the defeat since I know the pulse of the people who pledged their support to me.”
The Rajapaksa administration denied reports that his freedom of movement was being restricted.
