Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa became his own successor on Wednesday after former army chief Sarath Fonseka failed to topple the president in the first post-war elections held in the country.
It had come as a surprise for Rajapaksa when Foneska, one of his closest allies, became a presidential candidate, posing an unexpected challenge for the president who otherwise enjoyed no major political opponents.
The men, each of whom claimed responsibility for the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in the North of Sri Lanka earlier this year, both touted the victory as the centrepiece of their campaigns.
“Thirty years we have suffered from war and he has ended it,” said Saman Dankotuwage, a Sri Lankan entrepreneur, speaking about the president.
With the 25-year civil war over, a different battle was being fought—a political battle that saw the run-up to the election marked by violence. Four supporters of both the president and the opposition were killed and hundreds wounded. Just days before of the election, the home of an opposition supporter was attacked with a petrol bomb.
While Rajapaksa has hailed his 57 percent majority victory, Fonseka, who won 40 percent of the votes, has rejected the result and vowed to challenge it in court.
“We will never accept this result. We will petition against it,” Fonseka told repoters following the election. “The enthusiasm of the people we noticed during the campaign is not reflected in this result.”
While voting went peacefully in most of the country, grenades exploded in different cities in the Northern Tamil part of the country, killing two.
The election drew a 70 percent voter turnout, showing Sri Lankans were highly involved in the election campaign. Voter preference was widely discussed among the populous, with strangers asking each other who they were voting for.
However, voter turnout in the Tamil areas, which make up around 13 percent of the population, was less than 30 percent.
The conflict between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels has left around 100,000 people dead, with 7,000 killed in recent months.
With reporting by Upeshikka Dankotuwage and Lishanthi Caldera.
It had come as a surprise for Rajapaksa when Foneska, one of his closest allies, became a presidential candidate, posing an unexpected challenge for the president who otherwise enjoyed no major political opponents.
The men, each of whom claimed responsibility for the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in the North of Sri Lanka earlier this year, both touted the victory as the centrepiece of their campaigns.
“Thirty years we have suffered from war and he has ended it,” said Saman Dankotuwage, a Sri Lankan entrepreneur, speaking about the president.
With the 25-year civil war over, a different battle was being fought—a political battle that saw the run-up to the election marked by violence. Four supporters of both the president and the opposition were killed and hundreds wounded. Just days before of the election, the home of an opposition supporter was attacked with a petrol bomb.
While Rajapaksa has hailed his 57 percent majority victory, Fonseka, who won 40 percent of the votes, has rejected the result and vowed to challenge it in court.
“We will never accept this result. We will petition against it,” Fonseka told repoters following the election. “The enthusiasm of the people we noticed during the campaign is not reflected in this result.”
While voting went peacefully in most of the country, grenades exploded in different cities in the Northern Tamil part of the country, killing two.
The election drew a 70 percent voter turnout, showing Sri Lankans were highly involved in the election campaign. Voter preference was widely discussed among the populous, with strangers asking each other who they were voting for.
However, voter turnout in the Tamil areas, which make up around 13 percent of the population, was less than 30 percent.
The conflict between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels has left around 100,000 people dead, with 7,000 killed in recent months.
With reporting by Upeshikka Dankotuwage and Lishanthi Caldera.
