The 'terminator' gets elected in Sri Lanka
Buddhist supremacists have chosen Gotabaya Rajapaksa to lead the multi-ethnic and -religious country that is increasingly showing signs of budding Buddhist fascism. Muslims who make up nearly 10% of the population continue to be threatened and were blocked from voting on the election day in many places. There were violence in many polling stations. At least 139 violations, including two cases of assault and 41 of intimidation, reported by midday on Saturday. The minority Tamils feel insecure with the election win of Gotabaya - the 'terminator'.
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Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who spearheaded the brutal crushing of Tamil Tigers a decade ago, stormed to power Sunday but promised to be a president for all Sri Lanka's races and religions after a divisive election.
Seven months after terrorist attacks that killed 269 people, Rajapaksa was elected on Saturday on the back of a nationalist campaign promising security and to crush religious extremism in the Buddhist-majority country.
However, Rajapaksa's triumph will alarm Sri Lanka's Tamil and Muslim minorities as well as activists, journalists and possibly some in the international community following the 2005-15 presidency of his older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa.
On Sunday Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 70, thanked all voters in an election that heightened ethnic and religious tensions in a country that only a decade ago emerged from a brutal civil war that cost 100,000 lives.
"I am conscious that I am also the president of those who used the vote against me," he said as he was formally declared the hands-down winner with 52.25 percent of the vote.
"It is my duty to serve all Sri Lankans without race or religious discrimination," he said. "I promise to discharge my duties in a fair manner."
Election results showed minority Tamil and Muslim communities voting overwhelmingly for the ruling party candidate Sajith Premadasa who came a distant second with 41.99 percent.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, with Gotabaya -- nicknamed "Terminator" by his own family -- effectively running the security forces, ended a 37-year civil war with Tamil separatists.
His decade in power was also marked by alleged rights abuses, murky extra-judicial killings and closer ties with China.
"I didn't sleep all night," said student Devni, 22, one of around 30 people who gathered outside Rajapaksa's Colombo residence. "I am so excited, he is the president we need."
Premadasa, 52, of the ruling party, conceded the race and congratulated Rajapaksa and urged him to implement his manifesto promising tax cuts, free food rations and subsidies to farmers.
Rajapaksa is due to be sworn in on Monday at the ancient north-central Buddhist pilgrim city of Anuradhapura. Turnout in Saturday's vote was 83.7 percent.
- Intelligence failure -
Saturday's poll was the first popularity test of the United National Party (UNP) government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who is under pressure from his cabinet colleagues to step down.
Wickremesinghe's administration failed to prevent the April attacks despite prior and detailed intelligence warnings from India, according to a parliamentary investigation.
On Sunday three cabinet members resigned -- including Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera.
Premadasa is the son of assassinated ex-president Ranasinghe Premadasa who fell victim to a Tamil rebel suicide bomber in May 1993.
But Gotabaya is adored by the Sinhalese majority and the powerful Buddhist clergy for how he and Mahinda ended the war in 2009, when 40,000 Tamil civilians allegedly perished at the hands of the army.
Under his brother, Gotabaya was defence secretary and effectively ran the security forces, allegedly overseeing "death squads" that bumped off rivals, journalists and others. He denies the allegations.
This makes the brothers detested and feared among many Tamils, who make up 15 percent of the population. Some in the Muslim community -- who make up 10 percent -- are also fearful of Gotabaya, having faced days of mob violence in the wake of the April attacks.
Under Mahinda, Sri Lanka also borrowed heavily from China for infrastructure projects and even allowed two Chinese submarines to dock in Colombo in 2014, alarming Western countries as well as India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Sunday that India looked forward to "deepening the close and fraternal ties... and for peace, prosperity as well as security in our region".
The projects ballooned Sri Lanka's debts and many turned into white elephants -- such as an airport in the south devoid of airlines -- mired in corruption allegations.
Unlike in 2015 when there were bomb attacks and shootings, this election was relatively peaceful by the standards of Sri Lanka's fiery politics.
The only major incident was on Saturday when gunmen fired at two vehicles in a convoy of at least 100 buses taking Muslim voters to cast ballots. Two people were injured.
According to the Election Commission the contest was, however, the worst ever for hate speech and misinformation.
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Muslim-carrying bus shot at by Buddhist supremacist fascists
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Shots were fired at a convoy of Muslims in Sri Lanka travelling to cast their ballots in the presidential elections.
Polls closed on Saturday evening in the election. Some observers see the incident as part of a coordinated effort to disenfranchise Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority.
There were no reported injuries in the convoy attack and police were investigating, said Manjula Gajanayake, spokesman for the Colombo-based Centre for Monitoring Election Violence.
The centre said there were reports elsewhere of minor election law violations, such as supporters influencing voters near polling stations and distributing mock ballots with party symbols.
Campaigning for Sri Lanka's presidential election was dominated by worries over national security, which was pushed to the forefront after deadly Islamic State-inspired suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday that killed 269 people.
At the same time, there is fear among both the Tamil and the Muslim minorities in Sri Lanka about a return to power of front-runner Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a hard-line former defence official under his brother, ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Read more: Weaponising the Muslim vote in Sri Lanka’s election
Rajapaksa had been widely expected to triumph over the ruling party candidate, Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa, but as the election approached, the race became very close.
Nearly 16 million of the 22 million people were eligible to vote and choose a new president from a record 35 candidates. President Maithripala Sirisena, who was elected in 2015, is not seeking reelection. Results are expected as early as Sunday.
A decade of peace following nearly 30 years of civil war was shattered earlier this year when homegrown militants pledging loyalty to the Islamic State group detonated suicide bombs at three churches and three hotels. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 71, cast himself as the only candidate capable of protecting Sri Lankans from such attacks.
During the war, he was accused of persecuting critics and overseeing what were called "white van squads" that whisked away journalists, activists and Tamil civilians suspected of links to the Tamil Tigers.
Some were tortured and released, while others simply disappeared. The Rajapaksa brothers are also accused of condoning rape and extrajudicial killings and deliberately targeting civilians and hospitals during the war.
The Muslims attacked on Saturday were part of a convoy organised by Premadasa's supporters, who had taken them back to vote in the northern district of Mannar. Many Muslims fled the area in 1982, when the Tamil insurgency began to grow, while others were evicted from northern Sri Lanka in 1990.
Read more: For my Muslim family in Sri Lanka, life has changed forever
The Elections Commission had encouraged them to register as voters in Mannar but had not arranged enough transportation to bring them from their homes in the northwestern district of Puttalam, Gajanayake said.
As they were heading to vote, they were shot at, pelted with stones and blocked by burning tires hours before polls opened.
Shreen Saroor, an activist working with displaced Muslims, said the attack made them more determined to vote. Many used public transport and private vehicles to get to the polling stations in Mannar.
"There is a concerted effort to keep the Muslims away from the ballot box," Ratnajeevan Hoole, a member of the Elections Commission, told The Associated Press.
It wasn´t immediately clear whether any of the attackers had been arrested.
Hoole said he had called for the arrest of a former top Tamil rebel commander in the east, now in alliance with Rajapaksa, for making inflammatory comments against Muslims in the run-up to the election. However, his request was not heeded.
The ex-rebel commander, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, broke away from the Tamil Tigers in 2004 and worked with the government to defeat the rebel group. His split helped the government end the 26-year war.
Hoole said that in videos posted on social media, Muralitharan - also known as Karuna Amman - had talked about the need to suppress the Muslim vote to undermine Muslims' growing influence in Sri Lanka's Eastern province.
There were no reported injuries in the convoy attack and police were investigating, said Manjula Gajanayake, spokesman for the Colombo-based Centre for Monitoring Election Violence.
The centre said there were reports elsewhere of minor election law violations, such as supporters influencing voters near polling stations and distributing mock ballots with party symbols.
Campaigning for Sri Lanka's presidential election was dominated by worries over national security, which was pushed to the forefront after deadly Islamic State-inspired suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday that killed 269 people.
At the same time, there is fear among both the Tamil and the Muslim minorities in Sri Lanka about a return to power of front-runner Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a hard-line former defence official under his brother, ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Read more: Weaponising the Muslim vote in Sri Lanka’s election
Rajapaksa had been widely expected to triumph over the ruling party candidate, Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa, but as the election approached, the race became very close.
Nearly 16 million of the 22 million people were eligible to vote and choose a new president from a record 35 candidates. President Maithripala Sirisena, who was elected in 2015, is not seeking reelection. Results are expected as early as Sunday.
A decade of peace following nearly 30 years of civil war was shattered earlier this year when homegrown militants pledging loyalty to the Islamic State group detonated suicide bombs at three churches and three hotels. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 71, cast himself as the only candidate capable of protecting Sri Lankans from such attacks.
During the war, he was accused of persecuting critics and overseeing what were called "white van squads" that whisked away journalists, activists and Tamil civilians suspected of links to the Tamil Tigers.
Some were tortured and released, while others simply disappeared. The Rajapaksa brothers are also accused of condoning rape and extrajudicial killings and deliberately targeting civilians and hospitals during the war.
The Muslims attacked on Saturday were part of a convoy organised by Premadasa's supporters, who had taken them back to vote in the northern district of Mannar. Many Muslims fled the area in 1982, when the Tamil insurgency began to grow, while others were evicted from northern Sri Lanka in 1990.
Read more: For my Muslim family in Sri Lanka, life has changed forever
The Elections Commission had encouraged them to register as voters in Mannar but had not arranged enough transportation to bring them from their homes in the northwestern district of Puttalam, Gajanayake said.
As they were heading to vote, they were shot at, pelted with stones and blocked by burning tires hours before polls opened.
Shreen Saroor, an activist working with displaced Muslims, said the attack made them more determined to vote. Many used public transport and private vehicles to get to the polling stations in Mannar.
"There is a concerted effort to keep the Muslims away from the ballot box," Ratnajeevan Hoole, a member of the Elections Commission, told The Associated Press.
It wasn´t immediately clear whether any of the attackers had been arrested.
Hoole said he had called for the arrest of a former top Tamil rebel commander in the east, now in alliance with Rajapaksa, for making inflammatory comments against Muslims in the run-up to the election. However, his request was not heeded.
The ex-rebel commander, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, broke away from the Tamil Tigers in 2004 and worked with the government to defeat the rebel group. His split helped the government end the 26-year war.
Hoole said that in videos posted on social media, Muralitharan - also known as Karuna Amman - had talked about the need to suppress the Muslim vote to undermine Muslims' growing influence in Sri Lanka's Eastern province.
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