Tag: lbo

UNITED NATIONS, January 27, 2010 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday voiced relief that Sri Lanka’s presidential polls went off relatively peacefully and urged the country’s political parties to abide by the official results. “I had been concerned at the level of violence during the campaign,” Ban told reporters here. “I am relieved […]

Jan 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa led in postal ballots of mostly state workers with opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka getting a lead in only districts in which results were declared. Common opposition candidate Fonseka led in postal ballots in Jaffna in the north and Batticaloa in the East with postal ballots […]

Jan 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa was leading his rival, common opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka in early results in an election where over 70 percent of the electorate turned up to vote. Fonseka won the Jaffna polling division Updated Rajapaksa had bagged nearly 60 percent and Fonseka around 38 percent with […]

January 27, 2010 (AFP) – Heavily armed troops on Wednesday surrounded the hotel occupied by Sri Lanka’s main presidential challenger, former army chief Sarath Fonseka, a military spokesman said. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said troops were deployed following information that army deserters were among 400 people inside the lake-front luxury hotel in central Colombo “We have […]

January 27, 2010 (AFP) – A Buddhist monk and another man were killed in a grenade attack on a temple in Sri Lanka’s central town of Gampola on Wednesday as presidential election results were being released, police said. Police spokesman I.M. Karunaratne said four others were wounded and a curfew had been declared in the […]

January 27, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse won a bruising re-election battle on Wednesday, but the result was rejected by his opponent who spent the day holed up in a hotel surrounded by troops. The election commissioner said Rajapakse had secured 57. 9 percent of the popular vote in Tuesday’s presidential poll […]

January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government said Tuesday that it would challenge the legitimacy of leading opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka, who contested the country’s first post-war presidential election. “We are seeking a court order on the suitability of this candidate because he is not eligible to be declared as a candidate,” Foreign Minister […]

January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Pre-dawn bomb blasts in Sri Lanka’s Tamil heartland escalated tensions as the country went to the polls Tuesday in the first presidential election since the end of its 37-year civil war. The bomb attacks on the house of a ruling party activist in the northern peninsula of Jaffna underlined the […]

January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Pre-dawn bomb blasts in Sri Lanka’s Tamil heartland escalated tensions as the country went to the polls Tuesday in the first presidential election since the end of its 37-year ethnic conflict. The bomb attacks in the northern peninsula of Jaffna were a violent start to an already bitter contest between […]

Jan 26, 2010 (LBO) – A leftist candidate in Sri Lanka’s presidential polls was turned away by polls officials Tuesday because he could not present a prescribed identification document under the country’s election laws. There are 22 candidates in the running for the presidency. The front runners are President Mahinda Rajapaksa and common opposition candidate […]

VAVUNIYA, January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Kandaswamy Wellarayanam, 73, walked six kilometres to vote in Sri Lanka’s election from a state camp where displaced Tamils were locked up after the country’s war last year. Now able to move freely, he said he and his wife, daughter and two grandchildren were eager to take part, even […]

COLOMBO, January 26, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka said he was unable to vote in Tuesday’s presidential election because his name was not on the electoral register. A pro-government politician had wanted him thrown out of the contest when he filed his nomination because he wrongly claimed Fonseka was a […]