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Sri Lankans Vote in Post-Civil War Presidential Election

   More  than  14  million eligible voters are choosing between President
   Mahinda Rajapaksa and former army chief Sarath Fonseka

   VOA News 25 January 2010
   Rajapaksa supporters with anti-Fonseka placards at rally, 24 Jan 2010

Photo: VOA

   Rajapaksa supporters with anti-Fonseka placards at rally, 24 Jan 2010

   Sri  Lankans  are voting Tuesday in the country's first post-civil war
   presidential  elections, contested by the two architects of last May's
   military victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels.
   More  than  14  million eligible voters are choosing between President
   Mahinda  Rajapaksa and former army chief Sarath Fonseka, former allies
   who  have  turned  into  irreconcilable  enemies.  The two have traded
   accusations of war crimes, corruption and incompetence.
   Full preliminary results are expected to be announced Wednesday.
   Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama warned Monday that up
   to 800 army deserters, most of them allied with Fonseka, are poised to
   disrupt the elections.
   Fonseka,  meanwhile,  claimed  that  five  battalions  deployed in the
   capital,  Colombo, are a sign he and other opposition leaders could be
   targeted as part of a "military coup" should he win.
   Western  diplomats  expressed concern about the potential for violence
   by supporters of the two rivals.
   Several  explosions  were heard in the predominantly ethnic Tamil town
   of  Jaffna  in northern Sri Lanka before the polls opened Tuesday.  An
   independent  election  monitoring  group  said  at least one explosion
   struck the office of a ruling party activist, but no one was hurt.
   There  are  only  20  international  observers  in the country for the
   election,  but more than 3,700 Sri Lankan monitors are to be stationed
   at polling centers.
   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters

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