Sri Lankan presidential poll ends peacefully

By Chen Zhanjie

COLOMBO, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's sixth presidential election closed largely free of violence Tuesday afternoon with initial results being expected early Wednesday.

The Department of Elections said 14,088,500 Sri Lankans were eligible to cast their votes at 11,098 polling station from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time (0130 GMT to 1030 GMT) to choose their next president mainly from the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka, though there are 22 candidates.

Fonseka, battle hardened soldier, whom Rajapaksa hand picked to command the Army to destroy the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2005, had declared "war" to challenge his former boss several months after the LTTE was defeated.

The manifesto of Rajapaksa, who is in politics for over 40 years and seek the people's endorsement for his second term, is totally a plan to drive the country for development. He who claims a development par with defeating the LTTE contest to get another six year stay to put more of his efforts to make the country Asia' s best.

The main advantage for him is his achievement of keeping the main pledge -- defeating the rebels -- within four years. While giving the leadership to continue military offensives until the Army killed LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran at the Nandi Kandal lagoon in the north, Rajapaksa initiated mega power projects, ports, fly- overs and infrastructure facilities around the country.

The main topic of his 103 page manifesto has given more weight on economic growth and steps to double the per capita income from 2,000 U.S. dollars to 4,000 dollars, to maintain an 8 percent growth rate and to transform Sri Lanka into an aviation, naval, financial and knowledge hub of Asia in four years of his second term.

The score sheet of Rajapaksa has high marks as he was able to fulfill the major pledges during his first term. It is easy to criticize but not easy to develop over 2,200 km of highways of the country, which is equivalent to the total highway development done in the previous 20 years, during a period of four years while pouring a massive sum of money to defeat the LTTE.

In his manifesto there is no utterance about the much-demanded change to the 17th amendment of the constitution to free the vital state institutions like the Election Commission and police from political influence, eradication of bribery and corruption, devolution of power etc. Though they were not in writing, Rajapaksa pledges in political stages to curb corruption at his best during his next term.

"Believable change" is the main slogan of Fonseka who claims that he shed uniforms not to have a luxurious life but to fight to rekindle the fading democracy, end corruption and Rajapaksa dynasty in politics. These may be the plus points that people will vote for this novel politician with a political experience of few months.

His manifesto based on 10 themes promises of implementing the 17th amendment, de-politicizing state institutions, ending wastage and corruption, and solving the Tamils' grievances.

Fonseka plans to end corruption -- the GDP loss amount to 350 billion to 400 billion rupees (3 billion to 3.48 billion U.S. dollars) annually -- and pass this saving to the public. So by this plan monthly salary of each public servants will increase by 10,000 rupees (about 87 U.S. dollars).