Mahinda Rajapakse declared sixth executive president of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 13:20 GMT]
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake declared Wednesday evening that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been elected sixth executive president in Tuesday’s presidential election. President Rajapaksa polled 6,015,934 (57.88 %) per cent of the vote against the 4,173,185 (40.15 %) secured by opposition common candidate Sarath Fonseka.
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Fonseka urges Commissioner of Elections to ensure his security

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 10:08 GMT]
Former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and the opposition presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka has urged the Sri Lankan Commissioner of Elections to take steps to ensure his security, claiming there were attempts to arrest him. The movement of Fonseka remains restricted as troops have surrounded the hotel. Meanwhile, Mahinda Rajapaksa continued his lead by a majority of 1.8 million votes when final counting was in progress. He polled 5,885,836 (57.88) against Gen Sarath Fonseka's 4,082,363 (40.15) counted till 3:00 p.m.
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Rajapakse leading by one million votes in 80 electorates with 2.9 million votes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 08:17 GMT]
The incumbent Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has polled 2,960.507 (60.27%) votes and General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, common opposition candidate received 1,690,990 (37.99%) votes in eighty of a total of 160 electorates so far results announced. Mahinda Rajapakse is leading by 1, 097, 034 votes.
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SL forces surround Fonseka's hotel

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 05:17 GMT]
Heavily armed Sri Lankan forces have surrounded Wednesday Cinnamon Lake hotel in Colombo, where opposition presidential candidate and former Sri Lanka Army General (retd) Sarath Fonseka was residing with opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe and JVP leader Somawanse Amarasinghe. Sarath Fonseka, who is trailing in the presidential contest against his former Commander-in-Chief Mahinda Rajapaksa was scheduled to hold a press conference Wednesday morning, but journalists were not allowed to reach the hotel and were waiting at Sri Sittampalam Gardiner Mawatte. In the meantime, Sri Lankan military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara has alleged that Sarath Fonseka was harbouring SLA deserters inside the hotel. Military has also been deployed around media outlets in Colombo.
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Rajapakse polls 59.63% votes, Fonseka 38.54% in 35 electorates

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 02:52 GMT]
In the thirty five electorates seats of 160 seats announced up to 8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, Sri Lanka's current President Mahinda Rajapaksa won twenty seven electorates and the rest went to General Sarath Fonseka.The total votes polled by Mahinda Rajapakse has risen to 1,285,074 (59.63) against Gen Sarath Fonseka’s 830,554 (38.54) votes.
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UPFA to file legal action against Fonseka: Premjayantha

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 18:34 GMT]
Susil Premjayantha, general secretary of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and a senior minister in the government led by incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa Tuesday evening said that his party would challenge the victory of General (retd) Sarath Fonseka in Court of Law if he becomes elected president. He made the announcement after the closure of presidential poll and after counting of postal votes began.
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Fonseka leads in North-East, Rajapaksa in South in postal vote count

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 18:26 GMT]
Former SLA Commander General (retd) Sarath Foneseka has received 3,173 postal votes in Jaffna while SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa received 892 votes. Jaffna MP M.K. Sivajilingam got 293 votes. Meanwhile, reports from Batticaloa also indicate that Fonseka was leading in the count of postal votes.
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TNA accuses EPDP for voter fraud in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 03:04 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna parliamentarians accused Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) for having taken large number of persons to the islets of Jaffna with the intention of committing voter fraud, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, EPDP men have instructed the post masters in the islets of Jaffna to issue polling cards to persons without calling for their identity documents and that EPDP supporters have collected the polling cards of many persons in many parts of Jaffna peninsula, TNA parliamentarians further accused.
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Court rejects CID application to search Wickremesinghe official residence

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 January 2010, 17:01 GMT]
Colombo Magistrate Ms Chandani Meegoda Monday rejected an application by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to issue a warrant to search the official residence of the leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Ranil Wickremesinghe. The CID cited reports of defamatory posters against SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa and weapons had been hidden inside the office residence of Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe.
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Voting Mahinda or Fonseka is submission to Colombo-centric system

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 January 2010, 18:10 GMT]
Eezham Tamils need not bother much about the outcome of the presidential elections. Whether Mahinda or Fonseka matters the same, says a senior journalist in Jaffna. Only the war criminals, their international abetters and the geopolitical competitors have to worry about the elections and it is their problem. Tamils have to concentrate in organizing their own polity and in demonstrating it. But if they abstain from voting there are people waiting to stuff the boxes. If Tamils want to register opinion and see neither of the main candidates get 50 percent they should cast the first vote to a third person and of all the candidates the moral obligation of Tamils is to vote for Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne. Looking upon the Colombo-centric system is the curse of Tamils for ages and instead of destabilising it, any participatory politics amounts to only submission to the system, he further said.
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Chandrika Kumaratunga extends support to Fonseka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 January 2010, 13:29 GMT]
Chandrika Kumaratunga, former executive president of Sri Lanka is reported to have extended her support to General (retd) Sarath Fonseka Sunday in the forthcoming presidential poll when the latter met her at her ancestral home in Attanagalla, according to initial reports reaching media sources in Colombo. No further details regarding the meeting between Chandrika Kumaratunga and Fonseka surfaced. General Fonseka travelled to Horogolla Sunday morning to seek her support.
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“Tamils’ votes indispensable to send Mahinda home” - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 January 2010, 03:55 GMT]
“The votes of Tamils are of great value in this presidential election,” Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader, R. Sampanthan said Saturday in a big election campaign meeting held Saturday around 3:00 p.m in Nalloor Chaddanaathar Koayil area, in which nearly four thousand people from various parts of the peninsula participated, sources in Jaffna said. “After considering various pressing issues including the resettlement of Vanni people in their places we decided to offer our support to Sarath Fonseka,” he said. “He agreed to consider our demands favourably while Mahinda was not prepared to give in on any of them and therefore we decided to support Sarath Fonseka in this presidential election,” Sampanthan further said.
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HRW calls for international investigations into war crimes

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 2010, 04:57 GMT]
Noting that the "verbal acrobatics" of Sri Lankan officials in an attempt to "dismiss the shocking mobile phone video...showing Sri Lanka soldiers summarily executing naked and bound [Tamil] captives" evokes memories of Orwell's 1984, Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch's emergencies director and an expert in humanitarian crises, in the Thursday edition of Guardian, warns that Sri Lankan officials cannot hide the reality of what happened during this brutal conflict and its continuing impact on Sri Lankan society, and that Sri Lanka's aggressive denial of its crimes only results in escalation of lost credibililty. HRW urges Ban Ki-moon to establish "an independent international investigation to establish the truth of what happened in Sri Lanka, an essential step toward accountability for the serious crimes committed there."
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Muslim presidential candidate supports TNA, SLMC decision

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 2010, 04:50 GMT]
M. S. Iliyas, former Jaffna parliamentarian and one of the presidential candidates, said that he welcomed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) decision to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa by supporting Sarath Fonseka in the presidential election, in a press meet held Thursday in Jaffna Veerasingham Hall. Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims and various political parties of the country have decided to bring in a change of government despite their differences, he added.
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Tiran Alles residence comes under grenade attack

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 2010, 03:20 GMT]
Unknown attackers lobbed a grenade Friday early morning at the residence of Tiran Alles, a leading businessman currently holding the post of General Secretary of the Mahajana Wing of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). Mr. Tiran Alles managed to escape from the attack, but his house and vehicle caught fire during the explosion, Police said. Tiran Alles is one of the campaign managers of the opposition common candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka.
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Rajapaksa, Fonseka fail in articulating political proposals: Friday Forum

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 January 2010, 14:01 GMT]
Friday Forum, a Colombo-based gathering which includes religious dignitaries, senior academics and others on Wednesday expressed concern that the two main presidential candidates Mahinda Rajapaksa and General (retd) Sarath Fonseka have failed to address the crucial issue of peace. "The failure to address this issue of great historical and national importance does not bode well for the future of our country. We may be condemned to the scourge of community tensions and a divided society for many more years to come unless sincere and meaningful political guarantees are made at this moment," the statement signed by Jayantha Dhanapala said.
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SL state media turned into propaganda outlets for Rajapaksa: RSF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 January 2010, 13:49 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders, on Thursday said it had established that 98.5 per cent of the news and current affairs air-time on Sri Lankan state-owned TV stations Rupavahini and ITN on 18 and 19 January was given over to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his supporters. “The TV propaganda is deafening and the figures we are releasing today are worthy of the Burmese or North Korean regimes," the press freedom organisation said. Control of the state media has become crucial to the election campaign. The Commissioner of Elections has issued several reminders about the rules requiring balanced coverage and tried to introduce a Competent Authority to monitor the TV stations, but the president’s office resisted. The Sri Lankan supreme court’s ruling has also been ignored, the RSF said.
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Mahinda inciting racial hatred between Sinhalese and Tamils - Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 January 2010, 14:01 GMT]
“President Mahinda Rajapakse, on learning Tamil National Alliance (TNA) intention of supporting his rival Sarath Fonseka in the presidential election, is actively engaged in whipping up racial animosity between the Sinhalese and the Tamils,” Suresh Premachandran, TNA parliamentarian said in a press briefing held Tuesday in his Jaffna office. “Mahinda, Minister Douglas Devananda and other government supporters are deceiving the Tamils with their false promises,” he further said.
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4th pre-election related killing reported from Kurunagala

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 January 2010, 10:04 GMT]
A 27-year-old person was killed and four others wounded Monday evening in a grenade attack on the residence of a deputy minister in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government.
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694 election related complaints, 289 persons arrested

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 January 2010, 16:05 GMT]
Two hundred and eighty nine persons were arrested and the number of pre-election related violence and complaints has risen to six hundred and ninety four till Sunday night, according to Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mahinda Balasuriya. The IGP revealed these figures at a media briefing held Monday in Colombo.
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