Looks Like Mahinda So Far
Ballot boxes. Photo by Perambara
You can follow the results at the Elections site, or easier on the Daily Mirror. Much easier on the hotlanka site, thanks @dilantha, @laknath. Actually, TV is probably still the best way to watch. Looks like the wheels fell off Sarath Fonseka’s duct tape campaign and people voted for the incumbent. Which is pretty much the default situ. A minority of polls have reported so we’ll see, but I think SF is polling less than Ranil did last time.
Dear oh dear. How hillarious is it going to be to see you crawl out of this one. Full credit to you though, you squirming snake, you’ve already started your long ascent back.
I wouldn’t worry about Indi. He lost nothing.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, lost a lot because of his actions.
Thanks to good people like Indi, this vindictive ex-military man almost became the biggest threat to Sri Lankan democracy.
This bizarre story about a coup is a good example of how gullible Colombo crowd can be.
Oh come on, don’t put all the Colombo crowd in the same box. Indi probably has some sort of affiliation and benefit for voting UNP style, which helps him buy all the “anti-corruption” bull. He’s about 8 years too soon for voting some in based on that.
Probably Mahinda will win, but the rece will be much closer than it appears now. Basically results of not much of the UNP strongholds are out yet including Colombo and Kandy. Specially Colombo has a shitload of voters who basically vote for UNP. They usually win most of Colombo with a percentage over 60. Also apparently MR fares badly in north. All suggests a much closer contest than it appears now.
You are wrong Colombo city limit votes will be offset by suburbs. NE turn out is low to mak a much difference. All suggest that this will wier than we all thought.
I will try to summarise my predictions….
North – Mostly scared out of voting, but there were reports of high turnout in the Manik Farm. Votes are likely to go to SF, but there might not be enough to make a large difference.
East – Same situation as the North. Again SF is likely to succeed, but the number of voters will be greater.
South – Lots more to come from Hambantota, Galle, Matara and rural areas which usually vote MR. No news at all from Kurunegala so far, not even postal votes.
Colombo region – Colombo will go for SF, but the margins will be tiny, so it wont help him much. Kalutara and Gampaha will go for MR.
North/Central – Kandy goes for SF. Matale is in the balance; it can swing either way. Anuradhapura is mostly for MR, and so is Polonnaruwa.
At the endo of the day, MR and Ranil will be happy. JVP will be nowhere (as usual). SF will have to flee the country, if he hasn’t not already, or risk arrest for a colourful variety of charges.
My only hope right now is that Fonseka will not release the dogs, a.k.a. the so called “death squads”. MR likely has no reason to cause trouble in the country, because he will be the one having to clean it up later.
I don’t know when this “Colombo elite” understand that the elections are not faught in syber space or in air waves but at grass root level in deep vilages in Sri Lanka.
Ditto! You hit the nail on the head. This is why indi is too early to cast vote based on anti-corruption. You need to alleviate poverty and make those people understand that corruption is bad and how it’s happening. Telling them that now, is not going to change anything. Specially right after the we won the war euphoria. So SF’s whole candidacy was doomed to failure from the start, wrong mandate, wrong time and wrong affiliations.
UNP should have concentrated on getting rid of Ranil, his time is up.
Mahinda slaps his detractors silly… AWESOME!!