Tag: Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka said he was unable to vote in Tuesday’s presidential election because his name was not on the electoral register. A pro-government politician had wanted him thrown out of the contest when he filed his nomination because he wrongly claimed Fonseka was a […]

January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lankans voted in their first post-war presidential election on Tuesday amid claims of violence and voter intimidation after a bitter and highly personal campaign. The contest was a straight fight between the incumbent, Mahinda Rajapakse, and his former army chief Sarath Fonseka, and was seen as too close to […]

Jan 26, 2010 (LBO) – More than 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s registered electors are estimated to have turned out to vote in Tuesday’s presidential polls, though voting at former war-torn areas in the north and the east was much lower, monitors said. Rohana Hettiarachchi Executive director of PAFREL, an election monitoring body said turnout […]

January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government said Tuesday that it would challenge the legitimacy of leading opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka, who contested the country’s first post-war presidential election. “We are seeking a court order on the suitability of this candidate because he is not eligible to be declared as a candidate,” Foreign Minister […]

January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Pre-dawn bomb blasts in Sri Lanka’s Tamil heartland escalated tensions as the country went to the polls Tuesday in the first presidential election since the end of its 37-year civil war. The bomb attacks on the house of a ruling party activist in the northern peninsula of Jaffna underlined the […]

January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Pre-dawn bomb blasts in Sri Lanka’s Tamil heartland escalated tensions as the country went to the polls Tuesday in the first presidential election since the end of its 37-year ethnic conflict. The bomb attacks in the northern peninsula of Jaffna were a violent start to an already bitter contest between […]

January 24, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president suffered a major defection on Sunday when the matriarch of his party pledged support for the main opposition candidate ahead of Tuesday’s fiercely contested election. Kumaratunga’s family has strong support among SLFP activists and her endorsement is seen as a boost to Fonseka, who is backed by […]

January 24, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s election this week features two men who emerged victorious on the battlefield of a civil war, but have since become bitter political enemies. President Mahinda Rajapakse, a veteran streetfighter politician who entered parliament aged 24, is taking on his former army chief Sarath Fonseka, a political novice who […]

January 25, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president vowed Monday to ensure the island’s first post-war presidential election goes off peacefully after deadly violence and opposition claims the ruling party was plotting a coup. Fonseka’s side said Sunday there was evidence of a coup plot by Rajapakse’s ruling party to try to hold on to […]

January 24, 2010 (AFP) – War-scarred Sri Lanka holds a peace-time presidential election this week after a bitter and highly personal campaign between the architects of the crushing of an almost four-decade-long insurgency. President Mahinda Rajapakse will face his former army chief Sarath Fonseka on Tuesday in an intriguing contest between two men who were […]