The Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa has conceded defeat in an election he had been widely predicted to win before a member of his own party defected to run against him, the presidential office has said. The president met with former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe this morning. The president concedes defeat and will ensure a smooth transition of power bowing to the wishes of the people, Rajapaksas press secretary, Vijayananda Herath, told AFP news agency. Maithripala Sirisena, a former health minister and political ally of Rajapaksa took an early lead in Thursdays election count, with the Department of Elections saying he had 56.5 percent of the initial votes counted, compared to 42 percent collected by the incumbent. Al Jazeeras Charles Stratford, reporting from Colombo, said no-one had expected the margin to be so great. It is frankly incredible news from Sri Lanka this morning, the country waking up to a new political leader, he said. It seems as if they have voted for political change in this country that has seen a leader lead this country for more than ten years. Sirisena, a former government minister who deserted the president and changed sides to become the oppositions candidate in November, has vowed to root out corruption and bring constitutional reforms to weaken the power of the presidency. Rajapaksa won handsomely in the last election in 2010, surfing a wave of popularity that sprang from the defeat in the previous year of ethnic Tamil separatists who had waged a crippling war against the state for decades. Read more at; aljazeera/news/asia/2015/01/rajapaksa-concedes-defeat-sri-lanka-vote-20151911423615440.html
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 05:29:15 +0000
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