SRI LANKA-ELECTIONS/CAMPAIGN ENDS Sri Lankan rivals woo voters as election campaign ends

Record ID: 144034

  • Title: SRI LANKA-ELECTIONS/CAMPAIGN ENDS Sri Lankan rivals woo voters as election campaign ends
  • Date: 15th August 2015
  • Summary: SUPPORTERS WAVING HANDS AND CHEERING
  • Embargoed: 30th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sri Lanka
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8PZKG5OAITVJMEU6TL9AS6CY5
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Campaigning for Sri Lanka's elections came to an official close at midnight on Friday (August 14) with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa holding dazzling rallies in a last gasp effort to sway voters.
    Former war-time president Rajapaksa is the country's first defeated leader to seek a legislative seat, in parliamentary elections that will be held on August 17.
    But Rajapaksa is trailing his main rival Ranil Wickremesinghe, the latest national opinion poll showed, as the once-powerful leader struggled to mount a strong campaign.
    Wickremesinghe has been prime minister of Sri Lanka since January 9, 2015 and is leader of both the United National Party and United National Front.
    Rajapaksa, ousted by former ally Maithripala Sirisena in a presidential election in January, is now seeking to turn the tables but is being dogged by allegations of abuse of power and sleaze.
    His party said his campaign has also been hobbled by a lack of security for a leader who crushed a 26-year insurgency by ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009, which won him support among majority Sinhalese but has made him unpopular among Tamils.
    At an election rally in Gampaha, some 40 kilometres from capital Colombo, Rajapaksa told his supporters that his opponents were spreading false propaganda to tarnish his image to make electoral gains at his expense.
    "They (my rivals) won in the past by misleading the people by telling lies and making them forget the actual history," Rajapaksa told thousands of supporters who sat for hours to listen to him speak.
    Rajapaksa remains a divisive figure in the multi-ethnic island nation of 21 million people that is still healing from extensive rights violations in the final stages of the civil war.
    A U.N. human rights report on the war in the north is due for release soon after the election. The United Nations estimated in 2011 that up to 40,000 civilians died in the final army assault on the separatist rebels.
    Rajapaksa's government denied abuses.
    Nearly 40 percent of voters surveyed at the end of the last month said Wickremesinghe was the best man for the job and only 27.5 percent chose Rajapaksa, the Center for Policy Analysis, which conducted the poll, said.
    The survey across all 25 districts of the island nation showed Tamil and Muslim voters stood solidly behind Wickremesinghe, the leader of the United National Party-led coalition.
    Rajapaksa held the edge among mostly Buddhist Sinhalese, winning the support of 36 percent against Wickremesinghe's 31.9 percent.
    Wickremesinghe laid out an ambitious development agenda in front of thousands of placard wielding, slogan shouting supporters in the heart of Colombo.
    "We have presented our programme - a new country in 60 months. One million jobs in 5 years, to get foreign investments, half a million houses, develop the education system," he said.
    His supporters sounded confident of a comfortable victory at the hustings.
    Ram Lim, one of UNP supporters said: "I think UNP will definitely win," he said.
    "Because the freedom people have got and I think they can express whatever they want," Lim added.
    Another supporter of Wickremesinghe sounded equally confident.
    "It should be a landslide victory for the UNP…because we have early had two consecutive governments under Mahinda Rajapaksa which have only served their families. They have robbed this nation and now people have had enough," said Shamsuddin.
    The parliamentary election comes after months of deadlock in the legislature, as the six-month-old coalition government cobbled together by Sirisena and Wickremesinghe has struggled to pass key political reforms.
    Sirisena has faced opposition from members of his own Sri Lanka Freedom Party, who remain loyal to Rajapaksa, while electoral reforms have been opposed by his main ruling coalition partner, the United National Party (UNP).
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