Sri Lankans voted under tight security in their first post-war presidential election on Tuesday amid claims of violence and voter intimidation after a bitter and highly personal campaign. Both sides said they expected to emerge victorious when results are announced Wednesday and blamed each other for a series of election-day attacks, which one monitoring group said might number 150 in total. “We will have a great victory,” President Mahinda Rajapakse told reporters after casting his ballot in his southern home constituency of Mulkirigala. “We must be ready to face the challenges of reaching new heights after this vote,” added the 64-year-old, who called the election only four years into his six-year term to seize on the government's victory over Tamil rebels last year. Fonseka unable to vote In a last-minute quirk, Fonseka suffered the embarrassment of not being able to vote himself, a problem he blamed on his name being omitted from the 2008 electoral register which was used for the poll. Ruling party lawmakers appeared on television saying he might be disqualified, but he received the full backing from the independent elections commissioner who said he was still eligible for the presidency.”My name is not on the 2008 register and therefore I cannot vote at this election,” said Fonseka. “The government is trying to use this to mislead the public at the last minute.” The opposition figurehead insisted he had sent in his voter registration papers. “Not having one's name on the electoral list is not a disqualification,” independent Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), an independent monitoring body, confirmed nearly 100 violent incidents during the day, mostly in northern and eastern areas, and said the figure could rise to 150. Pre-dawn bomb blasts in the northern Tamil heartland of Jaffna gave a violent start to the contest which threatens to bring new instability to the Indian Ocean island nation. “We can't say it was a free and fair election because there were a number of incidents all over the country,” said CMEV national coordinator D.M. Dissanayake. The opposition has said it will not accept the result if the 68,000 police and 12,000 soldiers on duty failed to prevent violence or if there was evidence of vote-rigging. The technicolour alliance behind Fonseka of Marxists, Muslims, Tamils and right-wingers has threatened to stage street protests if it feels the result has been stolen. 14 million voters, 22 candidates in Lankan polls Nearly 250,000 government servants were on duty for 6th Presidential Election to be conducted for the first time island wide, including the Northern and Eastern Provinces, after the conclusion of war on terrorism ended in May last year. There are 22 candidates in the fray, including incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Army Chief, General (Retd.) Sarath Fonseka, the two main contenders. Two candidates withdrew earlier. A spokesman for the Election Commissioner's Department told The Island that 14,088,500 persons were eligible to vote at the presidential election today. Ballot boxes were sent to Kachcheries islandwide yesterday under heavy security escorts. Among the voters eligible to vote are 45,732 internally displaced persons (IDP's) in the North and East. State as well as private buses had been deployed for those persons to travel to their polling booths in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. There are 11,098 polling centres and 888 counting centres.The Police Elections Secretariat sources told The Island that there would be 68,000 policemen on duty, assisted by personnel of the three armed forces.
