- Title: SRI LANKA: Tamil minority cast their votes in Sri Lanka's presidential election
- Date: 27th January 2010
- Summary: VAVUNIYA, SRI LANKA (JANUARY 26, 2010) (REUTERS) CLOSE OF SIGN OF POLLING CENTRE POLICE GUARDING POLLING CENTRE VOTERS ENTERING POLLING CENTRE CAR WITH ELECTION OBSERVATION SIGN PEOPLE LOOKING AT BOARD ELECTION OFFICIALS SITTING AT DESK MAN VOTING ELECTION OFFICIALS CHECKING IDENTIFICATION CARDS WOMAN CASTING HER BALLOT PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET PEOPLE CASTING THEIR VOTES (SOUNDBITE) (English) MURUGASH SIVAPALAN, 62-YEAR-OLD SCHOOL PRINCIPAL SAYING: "This time it's a very quiet election, we feel in Vavuniya, and we hope for the best and I'm sure that we will have a better future and if we all get together and united, united we stand, we can do wonders and this is what my expectations are and many people are thinking like that. Let us forget about the past. Past is past. Let bygones be bygones." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE QUEUING UP TO VOTE PEOPLE OUTSIDE POLLING CENTRE (SOUNDBITE) (Tamil) SUBRAMANIAM YOGARAJAN, 85-YEAR-OLD OWNER OF A RICE MILL, NOW A IDP SAYING: "Voting is a right. This election is a very important one. We want a change this time. That is why I am voting." PEOPLE QUEUING UP OUTSIDE
- Embargoed: 11th February 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Sri Lanka
- Country: Sri Lanka
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA26AQJKIXJT5E93F06IY8X0ANE
- Story Text: Sri Lankan voters from the Tamil minority began flocking to polling stations on Tuesday (January 26) to cast their votes in the country's first peacetime presidential election in nearly three decades.
In the northern city of Lavonia polling began amid heavy security and long queues of Tamil voters were seen at most election stations.
Two former allies who led Sri Lanka to victory in a 25-year civil are running for president after a bitter and personal campaign.
More than 14 million people registered to vote, and authorities have stepped up security amid fears that election day would be as bloody as a campaign in which five people were killed and more than 800 violent incidents were recorded.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and General Sarath Fonseka are the rivals in a close contest in which the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May has figured heavily in campaigning, with both claiming credit.
The minority vote is seen as crucial for opposition candidate Fonseka as the main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, considered a proxy of the defeated rebel group, was backing the opposition candidate and supports a change of leadership.
Tamils make up about 12 percent and for the first time in decades will be able to vote without the LTTE dictating their choice.
"This time it's a very quiet election, we feel in Vavuniya, and we hope for the best and I'm sure that we will have a better future and if we all get together and united, united we stand, we can do wonders and this is what my expectations are and many people are thinking like that. Let us forget about the past. Past is past. Let bygones be bygones," said 62-year-old school principal, Murugash Sivapalan.
"This election is a very important one. We want a change this time. That is why I am voting," added 85-year-old Subramaniam Yogarajan who owned a rice mill and was displaced during the war.
Before polls opened, loud blasts were heard in the northern city of Jaffna, the centre of Sri Lanka's minority Tamil culture that has been under military guard since 1995. No one was wounded and it was not immediately clear what caused the explosions.
More than 68,000 police and a quarter-million election officials have spread out across the Indian Ocean island, which for the first time in nearly three decades votes without the fear of suicide blasts or attacks by the Tamil Tiger separatists.
Whoever wins will take the reins of a $40 billion economy still waiting to taste the real fruits of peace, despite large Indian and Chinese investments into infrastructure and a stock market that returned 125 percent last year on post-war optimism.
Both candidates have urged their supporters to remain calm, and pledged to respect the electoral process.
Rajapaksa as commander-in-chief and Fonseka as the army commander stood side-by-side after the victory in May, but within months split over what the general said was his sidelining by the President and unfounded accusations he was plotting a coup.
A motley coalition of opposition parties with divergent ideologies have joined to support Fonseka with the sole aim of beating the incumbent, who called the vote two years early hoping to capitalize on his seemingly unbeatable post-war popularity.
There are no reliable opinion polls, but the consensus is that Fonseka and Rajapaksa are running a close race, while the 20 other candidates are not expected to get many votes. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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