Word: rajapaksa
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...race between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his challenger, the former army commander Sarath Fonseka, is unexpectedly close. Rajapaksa won the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a brutal ethnic separatist group that once controlled much of northern and eastern Sri Lanka. But Fonseka, a hero in his own right in the same war, is a formidable opponent. He represents a patchwork coalition of opposition parties united in their antipathy to Rajapaksa, whom they say has disregarded the rights of the Tamil minority and indulged in blatant crony capitalism.(Watch a video about the final days...
...opposition has even raised the specter of a military coup, warning that Rajapaksa will do anything to stay in power. At election rallies, some opposition speakers alluded to the People Power movement in the Philippines, born of outrage against the discredited 1986 election there. Rajapaksa's party dismissed those fears. "We don't need to use thuggery," says Susil Premajayantha, general secretary of the President's ruling United People's Freedom Alliance. "The people are behind...
...district of Hambantota. The dead include a 60-year-old woman, who was shot when an unidentified group opened fire on a busload of people returning from a Fonseka rally. Another Fonseka supporter was clubbed to death on Jan. 18. A bomb targeting a ruling-party politician killed one Rajapaksa supporter; another was shot when two rival groups clashed. Five days before the election, the house of Tiran Alles, a key Fonseka aide and former ally of Rajapaksa, was fire-bombed, although no one was injured. (Read "Sri Lanka Closes In on Leader of the Tamil Tigers...
...there is violence on polling day, voters may stay home in fear, CaFFE's Thenakoon warns. That's a big risk for the opposition, as Fonseka supporters say that the higher the voter turnout, the better his chance of ousting Rajapaksa. "They want to keep us away from the booths," Fonseka told the crowd at his final election rally on Jan. 23. "We should not get scared, we should go and vote." (See pictures of life in the territories previously controlled by the Tamil Tigers...
...elections were called early by Rajapaksa, who is seeking to validate his victory against the LTTE. Instead, many voters are taking the opportunity to send him a message that they are still suffering economically. Karu de Silva, a resident of Colombo and father of two, says he plans to vote for Fonseka because he feels that Rajapaksa's government has not given families any relief from rising prices. "This year I spent probably twice as much as I spent last year on the books for the new school year," de Silva says. "We need some kind of help...