Keen contest on cards as violence rises | World News - Hindustan Times
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Keen contest on cards as violence rises

Hindustan Times | BySutirtho Patranobis, Colombo
Jan 20, 2010 01:04 AM IST

Next Tuesday, Sri Lankans will queue up to vote in one of the most important elections in their history since independence. More than 14 million eligible Lankans will choose a President, at least technically, for the next six years.

Next Tuesday, Sri Lankans will queue up to vote in one of the most important elections in their history since independence. More than 14 million eligible Lankans will choose a President, at least technically, for the next six years.

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For a country still emerging from the ruins of a protracted ethnic war, the January 26 election is part of the process of gradually returning to a state of normalcy from a state of war that the country was since 1983 and before.

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Sri Lanka of course held both Presidential and general elections right through the years of war. Though elections always threw up a Sinhala-majority government, the democratic framework was never allowed to wither.

This time, the campaign has been bitter, acrimonious and personal. The two strongest contenders, incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa and former army chief Sarath Fonseka bestowed complete freedom to their supporters to lunge at each other with full venom.

Not only is the polity, even the media is split right through the centre in their support, or opposition, to Rajapaksa and Fonseka.

If initially only the rhetoric was violent, the last week or so has seen the violence spilling over to the streets. Till Tuesday afternoon, five people had been killed in and 695 cases reported on violence related to the election.

The situation has become increasingly volatile mainly because the perceived gap between Rajapaksa and Fonseka is narrowing.

It was one-sided till Fonseka shed his uniform and picked up the politician’s white dress; the contest now is expected to be keen.

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