COLOMBO, Nov 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Gunmen fired at buses carrying minority
Muslim voters on Saturday as Sri Lankans elected a new president, with the
powerful Rajapaksa clan eyeing a comeback seven months after Islamist
extremists carried out deadly bombings on the island.
Minority Tamils and Muslims are seen as crucial in the close election, and
the attack in the northwest of the island — in which no one was injured —
was likely aimed at deterring people from voting.
The assailants set fire to tyres on the road and set up makeshift
roadblocks before shooting at and pelting with stones two vehicles in the
convoy of more than 100 buses, police said. After casting ballots there were
given an armed escort back home.
In the Tamil-dominated northern peninsula of Jaffna, meanwhile, police said
they arrested 10 men they suspected of “trying to create trouble”, while also
complaining that the army had illegally set up roadblocks that could stop
people getting to polling stations.
Such tactics are nothing new in Sri Lanka, which emerged from a horrific
civil war only a decade ago. At the 2015 election, there was a series of
explosions in the north.
Supporters from rival parties meanwhile clashed in a tea plantation area 90
kilometres (55 miles) east of the capital Colombo, with two people taken to
hospital with knife wounds, the election commission said.
– Terminator vs Padman –
Some 85,000 police were on duty for the election with a record 35
candidates running for president, an office with considerable power similar
to the French political system, with close to 16 million eligible voters.
Results could come as early as midday (0630 GMT) on Sunday if there is a
clear winner.
Nationwide preliminary figures for voter turnout appeared to be similar to
2015 when it was 81.5 percent. Voting ended at 5:00 pm (1130 GMT).
One of the two frontrunners is grey-haired retired army lieutenant colonel
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 70, younger brother to the charismatic but controversial
Mahinda Rajapaksa, president from 2005-15.
Dubbed the “Terminator” by his own family, “Gota” is promising an
infrastructure blitz and better security in the wake of the Islamist attacks
in April that killed 269 people.
“Gotabaya will protect our country,” construction worker Wasantha
Samarajjeew, 51, said as he cast his ballot in Colombo.
His main rival is Sajith Premadasa, 52, from the governing liberal United
National Party (UNP), son of assassinated ex-president Ranasinghe Premadasa.
He is also pushing development and security as well as free sanitary pads
for poor women, earning him the nickname “Padman” after a famous Bollywood
movie.
The Rajapaksas are adored by Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority for defeating
Tamil Tiger separatists and ending a 37-year civil war in 2009.
They are detested and feared by many Tamils, who make up 15 percent of the
population. The conflict ended with some 40,000 Tamil civilians allegedly
killed by the army.
During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency, Gotabaya was defence secretary and
effectively ran the security forces, even allegedly overseeing “death squads”
that bumped off political rivals, journalists and others.
He denies the allegations.
What also concerns Western countries, as well as India, is that
strategically located Sri Lanka moved closer to China under Mahinda
Rajapaksa, even allowing two Chinese submarines to dock in Colombo in 2014.
Under its Belt and Road Initiative spanning Asia and beyond, China loaned
and granted Sri Lanka billions of dollars for infrastructure projects, many
of which turned into white elephants and mired in corruption allegations.
Mahinda says credit was unavailable elsewhere.
Western capitals “should give a fair chance to us”, Basil Rajapaksa,
another brother, told reporters. “They can’t be monitors of this country.
They must be partners.”