Community | January 25, 2010 | 2 comments

Sri Lanka goes to the polls

source: http://blogs.current.com/news/2010/01/25/sri-lanka-goes-to-the-polls/

Image
afitzgerald

http://blogs.current.com/news/2010/01/25/sri-lanka-goes-to-the-polls/

From the News Blog: http://blogs.current.com/news/2010/01/25/sri-lanka-goes-to-the-polls/
What's the only thing that can tarnish your Presidential campaign as the leader who brought the end of a thirty year civil war? Is it allegations of human rights abuses? No, it's being challenged by the only other person who has a better claim to that title: your top general.

That's what's happening in Sri Lanka right now as voters head to the polls tomorrow. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is facing off against General Sarath Fonseka, the former commander of the Army. The poll so far has been marred by violence:

From the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/25/sri-lanka-presidential-election
"More than 800 violent incidents and five deaths have been recorded in the run-up to the election, according to the independent Centre for Monitoring Election Violence."

What the poll seems not to have been marred by, however, is any sort of criticism of the government's conduct of the end of the war with the Tamil Tigers. Or of their so-far sketchy plans to provide resettlement to the thousands of Tamil refugees currently living in camps.

The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence is mapping reports of violence during the poll: http://cmev.wordpress.com/maps/

For some background on the situation Sri Lanka finds itself in as it casts its vote for a new leader, below is Vanguard: Sri Lanka: Notes from a War on Terror:
  1. groups:
    Community,   News_Featured,   Sri Lanka's Civil War
  2. tags:
    Terrorism,  Election,  Elections,  Asia,  18 more
  3.     
    |

2 comments // Sri Lanka goes to the polls

top videos