Neck and neck battle for Sri Lanka presidency

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse saw his margin narrowed as about 15 percent of the 10 million valid votes were counted after the country's presidential election. Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse saw his margin narrowed as about 15 percent of the 10 million valid votes were counted after the country's presidential election. Results released by the Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake showed that Rajapakse had received 772,969 votes, or 50.

89 percent of the 1.51 million votes counted.

Former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe was closely trailing with 725,935 ballots, or 47.

8 percent of the valid votes counted so far, the results showed.

The first to be announced was the counting of "postal ballots," the votes of public servants deployed for the election which gave the premier a bigger margin.

Commissioner Dissanayake said about 75 percent of the 13.

3 million electorate turned out to vote.

Election officials said the election appeared to be a close battle between the two main contenders. - AFP

-Amal Jayasinghe: win98win@gmail.com