Associated Press
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Early returns today showed Sri Lanka’s incumbent president ahead of his estranged former army chief in their bitter race to win the country’s first presidential election after its quarter-century war against Tamil Tiger rebels.
Both incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former top general, Sarath Fonseka, are considered heroes by the country’s Sinhalese majority for their leading role in defeating the Tigers in their campaign for an independent Tamil state.
No major violence was reported during Tuesday’s polling in an election seen as a first step in recovery from decades of conflict.
Initial results today showed Rajapaksa leading with 1,125,297 votes compared to 752,850 for Sarath Fonseka.
But the race was still up for grabs, with millions of votes not tallied. There are some 14 million registered voters, and the overall turnout was around 70 percent.
State media interspersed reports of initial returns today 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.”
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.
