Sri Lankan president faces new challenges in 2nd term

by Asanka Fernando, Chen Zhanjie

COLOMBO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The result of Sri Lankans' choice made between the war president and the war general was clear on Wednesday. The incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa won the island's sixth presidential election with a comfortable margin.

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayaka said Rajapaksa had won 6,015,934 votes or 57.88 percent of the total while his main challenger former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka won 4,173,185 or 40.15 percent.

The election was actually a war between Rajapaksa and Fonseka, his Army chief who was promoted to be the island's first ever four- star general by Rajapaksa himself.

"People reposed faith on Rajapaksa," Chulawansa Sirilal, a senior journalist said.

Both were revered for their respective roles in the less than three-year-old military campaign which crushed the over-three- decade old separatist campaign waged by Tamil Tiger rebels.

Fonseka's entry as a politician shocked the islanders, least of all was Rajapaksa himself who had never bargained for Fonseka's candidature when Rajapaksa called a snap election late November.

The incumbent scored heavily in the majority Sinhala dominated rural heartland by winning nearly 60 percent of the poll.

"People trusted Rajapaksa because he finished the war," Sirilal explained Rajapaksa's massive gains among the Sinhalese.

Rajapaksa accused Fonseka of entering a secret deal with the Tamil National Alliance, a party regarded as a proxy of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.

"This secret deal story came to be believed by many," Sirilal added, adding that it can partly explain the fewer than expected votes secured by Fonseka among the majority Sinhalese.

On the other hand, Tamil and Muslim minorities favored Fonseka over Rajapaksa.

"It is ironic that minorities should opt for the Sinhalese Army general," Sirilal said.

Fonseka won the Tamil dominated north and Muslim droves in the east. His wins in the capital Colombo district also came in areas of minority dominance.

"We are so glad that Rajapaksa is now the president of all communities. He must now fulfill minority aspirations," Dharmalingam Siddaththan, the leader of the Tamil political party PLOTE or the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam said.