Challenger fears arrest as Sri Lanka re-elects premier

SRI LANKAN President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a resounding re-election victory yesterday, beating back a challenge from his former army chief, who rejected the official results and said he feared arrest as troops surrounded his hotel.

The capital was tense even as people hit the streets in celebration, setting off fireworks, waving Sri Lankan flags and holding up posters of Rajapaksa.

The election commission declared Rajapaksa the winner with 57.8% of the vote to Sarath Fonseka’s 40%. The president now must rebuild the country after last year’s successful offensive to destroy the Tamil Tiger separatists after 25 years of conflict.

“After this election, everyone should now join together in building the country,” Rajapaksa said.

In an apparent effort to dispel the acrimony of the campaign, he added: “From today onward, I am the president of everyone, whether they voted for me or not.”

But Fonseka refused to accept the results and told the electoral commission he would initiate legal proceedings to have the vote annulled.

In the letter, he accused Rajapaksa of using the state media to attack him, of misappropriating public funds for his campaign and of preventing displaced minority Tamils — whose support the opposition candidate was counting on — from voting.

The distraught election commissioner, Dayanada Dissanayake, appeared to agree. He said the state media violated guidelines he had crafted, government institutions behaved in a way that embarrassed him and he pleaded to be allowed to resign his post.

As the returns came in, troops surrounded the Cinnamon Lake Hotel after 400 people, including alleged army deserters, gathered inside with Fonseka. Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said there were no plans to arrest Fonseka.