This island looks entirely peaceful from the sea. Ship out at 7h00 with the Mirissa Water Sports Club (0 773 597 731). We saw a plethora of whales and dolphins. Too much really. Blue Whales, Bryde’s Whales, Sperm Whales, floating and gloating, rolling and cajoling. It’s strange how serene I feel, seeing just a crest of those mammalian bodies above a thousand meters of sea.

I’m in Mirissa tonight, waking up early to go whale watching. Which is what’s so lovely about this island. Dropped by the Galle Literary Fest but it’s bit too much for me right now, going to go looks at some fish. Mammals. It’s a fascinating island and there is plenty to do. Right now it’s quite happening down south, if you’re around.

In what I hope will be the last of my election posts, here are some photos from Perambara. Mahinda Rajapaksa won, but there was a lot of drama and excitement along the way. I think the election was unfair, but power has its own demands and exigencies. So congratulations to Mahinda Rajapakse, if possible, it would be cool if this country could either follow the Constitution or change it, if only to reduce the chaos levels a bit. Life goes on and Sri Lanka is still a nice place to live and visit. Here are some photos of the polling if you’d like to see.

Apparently GL Peiris is saying Mahinda will wait to take his oaths as President. In Sri Lanka the Presidential term is six years, but they can call the election after four. Then they win and serve for another term. However, there seems to be this interpretation that the Prez can bank those extra two years and serve for a total of eight. Which I think is against the Constitution, but what isn’t. That document says the Presidential poll has to be taken not more than two months before the end of the term of office, so by calling a poll the Prez effectively ends his term. Unless, apparently, he doesn’t feel like it.

Apparently three chaps have been arrested for sending false rumors over SMS and Facebook. I wonder if it’s those damn 94112512102 buggers that have been bunging up my inbox, though that stuff was pro-Mahinda. The problem with the law here is that it tends to be just another thing to bash people over the head with. I don’t know anything more about this case besides the SMS that came out of Ada Derana. I wonder if they’re also going to crack down on the people that spread false info through Rupavahini and state media. The SMS election spam is a problem and it went both ways. I personally got the most from the MR camp. I wonder who the chaps that got busted are.

If anyone should step down, it’s Ranil Wickremesinghe. This is the umpteenth loss he’s been in and he tossed the dude overboard as soon as it was over. Ranil said it was a free and fair election when A) it wasn’t, it was merely tolerable by execrable standards and B) Sarath was saying he didn’t agree with the results. From the body language at the conference table, Sarath was always leaning JVP, but perhaps that’s because they work harder and run an active opposition. I was in the UNP office and they have good machinery, but Ranil doesn’t work it. We saw during this election the positive changes a confident opposition can make simply by forcing the government to compete. But Ranil isn’t the leader for that. He’s just waiting for the stars to align in 2016.

I think Mahinda Rajapaksa won the Presidency. Fonseka has real legal concerns about the election, but it was free and fair enough for most observers. So now what? Me, I have to go to the bank and go get a wedding present. See, through all the seeming chaos, Sri Lanka actually runs fine. That is in many ways the paradox of the place. Sometimes it looks like the wheels are falling off but they never do. Unlike the days of insurrection (both Sinhala and Tamil) I think we are thankfully entering an age of political rather than visceral absurdity. I mean visceral as in blood and guts. This sucks, but significantly less than it used to.

General Sarath Fonseka has left the Cinnamon Lakeside and been escorted home. I don’t think there’s any danger of him being assassinated, indeed, that’s the worst case scenario for everyone. Mahinda Rajapaksa has been declared the victor by his own state apparatus and I think most people accept that result. I guess I do too, but that’s more a testament to our low standards than anything else. The election campaign was illegal, but not illegal enough for us to care.

Above is the intro and meaty part in Sinhala. Below is an interesting bit on him explaining his security situation (in English). These are uploading now and I will update them on this post in about an hour. Cause I am going to go outs. If you want to view them in the meantime they should be available at www.youtube.com/samarajiva. I think Mahinda is giving a Press Con now, but don’t think I could get into that.

This is the text of Sarath Fonseka’s letter to the Elections Commissioner. He is saying that the elections were not free and fair and were conducted illegally. I think it is naive, politically tone-deaf, foolish, helpless and dumb. But I don’t think his complaints are wrong. The election did violate the Constitution and Elections Law, blatantly. We’re used to it and we don’t care. For us it was fair enough. But in a legal sense, his complaints are actually correct.