President leads in Sri Lanka’s tense election; troops surround challenger’s hotel

Sri Lanka: Initial results show president leads

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Hundreds of Sri Lankan troops surrounded the hotel where the opposition candidate was holed up Wednesday as early returns from the nation’s hard-fought presidential election gave the incumbent a commanding lead.

The military deployment reflected the tensions surrounding the race between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former army commander, Sarath Fonseka.

The two men are considered war heroes by the Sinhalese majority for leading the country to victory just eight months ago in its long civil war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, but a bitter falling out pushed Fonseka to quit, join the opposition and challenge the president.

Throughout the campaign, the opposition accused Rajapaksa of plotting to rig the vote and steal the election. Fonseka himself was unable to vote Tuesday because he was not registered. It was unclear if he had failed to register or if he tried and was left off the voter rolls.

Initial results Wednesday showed Rajapaksa leading with 3,563,634 votes compared to 2,209,214 for Fonseka, a 23 percentage point difference. There are some 14 million registered voters, and the turnout in Tuesday’s polling was around 70 percent.

As those results were being announced, troops surrounded the Cinnamon Lake Hotel after about 400 people, including alleged army deserters, gathered inside with Fonseka, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

“We don’t know what’s their motive, and as a protective measure we have deployed troops around the hotel, and people who go in and come out are being checked,” Nanayakkara told The Associated Press. He said there were no plans to arrest Fonseka.

Speaking to reporters at the hotel, opposition lawmaker Rauf Hakeem denied deserters were there and called for the government to allow Fonseka freedom of movement.

He said Fonseka had not tried to leave, but that the troop deployment signaled “his leaving the hotel will be quite dangerous.”

Jehan Perera, a political analyst in Colombo, called the military presence at the hotel “absolutely unprecedented.”

“It reflects the suspicion and the level of mistrust,” Perera said.

Attempts to reach Fonseka were not immediately successful.

Fonseka remains popular with the troops he led to victory against the Tamil Tigers after 25 years of civil war, and the government is worried that he might claim electoral fraud and then try to rally his former soldiers, Perera said.

The race has been acrimonious from the start, with the general accusing his former boss of entrenched corruption and the president branding Fonseka a dictator-in-waiting. Rights groups have accused Rajapaksa of misusing state resources — including monopolizing coverage on state TV — to bolster his campaign.

State media interspersed reports of initial returns Wednesday with songs and programming featuring Rajapaksa, and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told broadcaster Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corp. that the results so far show the president “heading for a historic victory.”

No major violence was reported during Tuesday’s polling in an election that was seen as a first step in an attempt at recovery after the long conflict.

After the polls closed, government officials said they would seek to disqualify Fonseka’s candidacy because he was not registered to vote, but the electoral commissioner later issued a statement saying that Fonseka’s voting status was irrelevant to his candidacy.

While voting among the Sinhalese majority appeared to be strong, turnout was sparse in some northern Tamil areas, where the most intense fighting drove hundreds of thousands from their homes.

The minority community had been expected to support Fonseka and play a possibly pivotal role in the results.

Rajapaksa campaigned on his war record and promises to bring development to the nation. Fonseka pledged to trim the powers of the presidency and empower parliament.

Some observers fear that a dispute over the results could lead to street protests and violence.

Associated Press reporter Krishan Francis contributed to this report.

On the Net:

Department of Elections: www.slelections.gov.lk/index.html