Asia-Pacific

Sri Lankan president leads in early results

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-27 13:46

Sri Lankan president leads in early results

Sri Lankan presidential candidate former army commander General Sarath Fonseka waves after a news conference on the current election violence, in Colombo January 26, 2010. [Agencies]

Fonseka in the final days of the campaign said the government had plans to either steal the vote or arrest him should he win. The government laughed it off, saying Rajapaksa would win the race cleanly and had no need to cheat.

The general on Tuesday said he expected to win by a million votes, but he did not even win his home electorate of Ambalangoda, tallying just 35.9 percent to Rajapaksa's 62.7 percent.

Rajapaksa called the poll two years early, hoping to capitalise on his post-war popularity to win a second six-year term to cement his legacy.

Fonseka as army commander ran a relentless counterinsurgency campaign to crush the Tigers, while Rajapaksa deflected an international push for a ceasefire and criticism over civilian deaths that prompted calls for a war crimes probe.

Whoever wins 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.

Foreign investors have put more than $1.5 billion into government securities, and the Colombo Stock Exchange, turned in one of 2009's best returns at 125 percent.

Both Rajapaksa and Fonseka have pledged to dole out costly subsidies and public sector pay rises, which economists say will make it hard for Sri Lanka to meet its cost-cutting obligations under a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

Supporters of Sri Lankan presidential candidate retired General Sarath Fonseka dance in the streets at the closing of polls in Colombo January 26, 2010. [Agencies]