SRI LANKA-POLITICS/CANDIDATES VOTE Incumbent and opposition leader vote in Sri Lanka presidential poll

Record ID: 328421

  • Title: SRI LANKA-POLITICS/CANDIDATES VOTE Incumbent and opposition leader vote in Sri Lanka presidential poll
  • Date: 8th January 2015
  • Summary: COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (JANUARY 8, 2015)(REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LEADER OF OPPOSITION RANIL WICKREMESINGHE ARRIVING AT POLLING BOOTH VARIOUS OF WICKREMESINGHE CASTING HIS VOTE (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) LEADER OF OPPOSITION RANIL WICKREMESINGHE SAYING: "The people have responded to our request to vote early and to vote for a change. From Point Pedro Devinuwara these are the indications that we have got. I am confident people will return Maithripala Sirisena as the president to make the changes that we desire" VARIOUS OF WICKREMESINGHE WITH HIS SUPPORTERS
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sri Lanka
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2Q6NSGIS3BKY9P7AAJF6KD1B3
  • Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    President Mahinda Rajapajsa participated in a Buddhist religious ceremony at his home in the southern city of Hambantota before casting his vote in Sri Lanka's presidential election.
    Rajapaksa won handsomely in the last election, surfing a wave of popularity that sprang from the 2009 defeat of ethnic Tamil separatists who had waged a crippling war against the government for 26 years
    "We are going to win this handsomely. Our victory will be seen as a great victory by treating the defeated well. That's what I believe," he said after casting his vote.
    Although his popularity has waned, Rajapaksa called the election two years early, confident that the perennially fractured opposition would fail to find a credible challenger.
    However, he did not anticipate the emergence of Mithripala Sirisena, who quit as one of Rajapaksa's ministers and crossed to the other side to become the opposition's candidate in November, triggering a flood of defections from the government.
    The main opposition United National Party and 45 other political and civil society groups are backing Sirisen's reform agenda.
    "The people have responded to our request to vote early and to vote for a change. From Point Pedro Devinuwara these are the indications that we have got. I am confident people will return Maithripala Sirisena as the president to make the changes that we desire," opposition leader and the national leader of the United National Party Ranil Wickremesinghe told the media after casting his vote in the capital colombo
    Some 15 million people are eligible to vote in the election, which began shortly after dawn. A result is expected to emerge in the early hours of Friday.
    With more than 25,000 local and about 70 foreign monitors set to observe the vote, the election commission has said it is confident the poll will be free and fair.
    Nevertheless, rumours have been rife in Colombo that force may be used to keep Sirisena voters away, that the result will somehow be distorted or even that the military might be deployed if Rajapaksa looks set to lose.
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