Gotabaya Rajapaksa wins Lanka Prez polls

November 17, 2019 11:46

Sri Lanka's former wartime defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has emerged victorious in the presidential election the results of which were announced on Sunday.

Rajapaksa, the main opposition candidate, defeated housing minister Sajith Premadasa despite the latter taking an early lead in the fiercely fought election.

The election was the first incumbency test of the UNP-led government since the April 21 suicide bomb attacks that killed at least 269 people and were blamed on local Islamist terror groups.

The government had faced severe criticism for failing to prevent the attacks despite prior warnings.

The six-week campaign in a neck-and-neck race has seen tensions mount across Sri Lanka, with the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) documenting at least 743 electoral violations, including at least 45 cases of assaults or threats.

The alleged violations are split relatively equally between the two leading parties, Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka People's Front (SLPP) and Premadasa's UNP, Al Jazeera quoted the CMEV data as showing.Sirisena's term was also marred by a failed attempt to remove Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe from the office, that sparked a constitutional crisis that even when resolved by the Supreme Court -- which restored Wickremesinghe to his position -- left a government essentially cleaved in two, CNN reported. -- ANI

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