The Sun Made By Man

Incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse took a strong lead in counting Wednesday from Sri Lanka’s bitterly fought presidential election, officials said, as armed troops surrounded the hotel of his main rival.

“We know General Fonseka is inside, but our interest is in the deserters who could be armed,” he said.

Rajapakse as commander-in-chief and Fonseka, his army chief, defeated the Tamil Tigers in May last year, ending a separatist conflict that left 80,000-100,000 dead, according to UN figures.

Partial official results showed Rajapakse with 1.31 million votes against 862,644 for Fonseka. An estimated 9.85 million people voted in all.

“Personally, the outcome is better than what I expected,” Yapa said.

“We have sent a message asking them to surrender,” Nanayakkara said, insisting that Fonseka himself was not the target.

An opposition spokesman complained that the military presence was intended to “intimidate us or arrest our leaders”.

“What the election commissioner has expressed is merely an opinion, but the courts have the ultimate authority to interpret the law,” Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told reporters late Tuesday.

Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said Rajapakse, who like Fonseka is a member of Sri Lanka’s dominant Sinhalese community, was “heading for a historic victory”.

Tuesday’s election was the first since Rajapakse, 64, and Fonseka, 59, engineered the final defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had been fighting for a Tamil homeland in the island’s northeast since the 1970s.

There were a number of violent incidents during voting, including bomb attacks in the northern Tamil stronghold of Jaffna, which monitors said had deterred some people from voting.

Tensions were acute in the capital Colombo, where up to 80 soldiers with machine guns ringed the de-luxe hotel where Fonseka was staying with several other opposition leaders.

The winner of the island’s first election since last year’s defeat of a three-decade insurgency by ethnic Tamil rebels was set to be announced around midday (0630 GMT).

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the troops had been deployed following information that army deserters were among some 400 people inside.

Rajapakse has ruled Sri Lanka since 2005. His three brothers and other family members are in key government positions including the ministries of defence and ports.

The military campaign made both men national heroes in the eyes of the Sinhalese-majority electorate but has since been mired in allegations of war crimes. Some 300,000 Tamils were herded into internment camps.

Four people were killed and more than 1,000 election-related incidents were reported to police in the run-up to Tuesday’s contest.

In a further twist, the government said it would challenge the legitimacy of Fonseka’s candidacy in court after it emerged that he was unable to cast a ballot on Tuesday because his name did not figure on the electoral roll.