Rajapakse urges Tamils to elect the 'known devil'

January 02, 2015 17:30

Sri Lanka's beleaguered President Mahinda Rajapaksa today appealed to the minority Tamils to back him, the "known devil", in the January 8 presidential polls as he campaigned in the former LTTE bastion.

"There is a saying that the known devil is better than the unknown angel", Rajapaksa said in Sinhala, speaking through a translator at a rally in Jaffna, the erstwhile stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam.

Rajapaksa (69) has been battling a flurry of defections from his ruling coalition- the United People's Freedom Alliance- with another parliamentarian switching loyalties to the opposition ranks today.

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