Rajapaksa leads in Lanka presidential poll

Incumbent Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has acquired an initial lead in postal vote counting in the country's sixth presidential election against main challenger and former army chief General (retired) Sarath Fonseka.
 
According to the island-nation's Election Office, over 70 per cent of the 14 million-plus voters exercised their franchise in Tuesday's presidential election, which was held from 7 am to 4 pm.

Counting of postal ballots commenced at 8 pm and of the other votes after 10 pm in 88 different centers. The final result is expected by Wednesday afternoon. 

According to the Election Office, in Ratnapura district, the President has polled nearly 69 per cent of the postal votes. He was also leading in postal votes in Monaragawa district.

On polling day, it was revealed that General Fonseka, the opposition nominee, had not enrolled himself as a voter. Senior ministers and leaders of the ruling combine charged him with taking people for a ride and said they would approach the apex court on his right to contest the election, despite the fact that the Election Commission had stated that his nomination papers were in order.

Voting was by and large calm, except for a couple of blasts in Jaffn, over 300 kilometers from capital Colombo. Rajapaksa cast his vote on Tuesday morning at the Madhumalana Rajapaksa Maha Vidayalaya polling centre in Hambantota.

In contrast to the high turn out in the majority Sinhalese south, polling in the northern and eastern provinces, parts of which were under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the last election, was poor.

Postal voting was held on January 12 and January 13 with 401,109 state employees being eligible to exercise their franchise.

The Election Department said 14,088,500 Sri Lankans were eligible to cast their votes at 11,098 polling stations. They were asked to choose their next president mainly from Rajapaksa and Fonseka, and 20 other candidates.

Rajapaksa called the election two years ahead of schedule to capitalise on his popularity among the majority Sinhalese after taking claim for the end of the decades-long civil war.

Fonseka, who was in charge of the army and masterminded the operations against the LTTE from 2006 to 2009, is equally credited for the victory.