President Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected for a second term by an overwhelming mandate in the Presidential Election held yesterday (26), in the first Presidential Election held after the defeat of the LTTE and in which, after nearly three decades people from all areas of the country could freely participate.

He polled 57.88% per cent of votes, and was clearly ahead of the next candidate, former Army Commander General (Rtd.) Sarath Fonseka who polled 40.15% per cent. Rajapaksa polled 6,015,934 votes while Fonseka polled 4,173,185.

President Rajapaksa contested this election as the leader of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of which the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which he leads, is the major partner with several other political parties representing all communities and most shades of political opinion.

Sarath Fonseka, a newcomer to politics, drew his main support from the rightwing United National Party (UNP) and extreme left wing Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP – People’s Liberation Front).

At the last Presidential Election when Rajapaksa was first elected he polled 4, 887,152 (50.29%) of the votes, while his nearest rival Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the UNP polled 4, 706, 366 (48.43%).

President Rajapaksa who was elected for a six-yea term in November 2005, sought a fresh mandate from the people having completed four years of his term, and just more than six months after his government militarily defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, that carried out a 30 years long war of terror to achieve a separate state of Eelam in the North and East of the country.

There were 14,088,500 registered voters in this election of which nearly 74% per cent or 10,495,451 cast their votes.

In all there were 21 candidates in the field for election of which Rajapaksa and Fonseka stood out as the main rivals. All other candidates combined polled only 204,494 votes.

President Rajapaksa’s rationale for seeking a fresh mandate before the end of his first tern of office was because the Tamil population in the North & East of the county was prevented from voting in the November 2005 election, following an order by the LTTE to boycott poll. He said this election would give the Tamil people, thus deprived of voting on 2005, the opportunity it to freely exercise their franchise, and would achieve his goal of obtaining a mandate from the entire country, to carry out the process of reconciliation among communities, and the development work that had already been commenced in his first four years in office.

His main rival Sarath Fonseka’s campaign was mainly on the claim that he alone, as Army Commander, was responsible for the defeat of the LTTE. His campaign was heavily dependent on unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against the Rajapaksa administration, and made use of Barack Obama’s campaign slogan of the “Change we can believe in”, which failed to find resonance among the majority of Sri Lankans; who were grateful of Rajapaka’s leadership in defeating the LTTE, removing the fear that gripped the people for decades, and also saw considerable improvement in the economy, while carrying on a costly war against the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world.

The people were also highly impressed by the manner in which he stood up to western powers and international organizations that were seeking to prevent the final rout of the LTTE and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, through a ceasefire in the final stages of the battle against terror.