By Amantha Perera
COLOMBO, Nov 15 2005 (IPS)

When 13 million Sri Lankan voters cast their ballots on Thursday, they will do so with clear choices before them and the sense that this is the closest contest for the top job since 1979, when the country adopted executive presidency.

Frontrunners, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and Opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, were equally confident of victory as they wrapped up campaigning at midnight on Monday, both vowing to make their next public address as the fifth president of the country.

During the final leg of a gruelling six-week campaign, both spoke of tasks ahead of them as holder of the highest office on the island nation of 19.5 million people, rather than appealing to voters for support.

“When we win, please don’t harm opponents, we have to work together now,” a confident Wickremasinghe told a large crowd at Wattala, north of Colombo, 72 hours before polling was to commence.

Rajapakse, appeared equally confident of victory. ‘’My first task as president on Nov. 18 would be to give fertilizer at Rs 350 (three US dollars),” he said in central Kandy on the same day.

Both Rajapakse, leading the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and Wickremasinghe of the United National Party (UNP) held their final rallies in Colombo amidst tight security.

“I am not afraid and I have the courage to end poverty and bring an end to the war-Ranil Wickremasinghe pledges that,” Wickremasinghe said in his final speech.

Security concerns forced Rajapakse to skip his last two rallies and he addressed his final rally in Colombo via telephone. “It is not a battle between Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremasinghe, it is not a battle between the UPFA and the UNP, it is a battle between two forces,” he said.

The two Sinhalese Buddhist candidates campaigned on widely divergent platforms concerning economic reforms, as well as peace negotiations with the formidable Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), drifting further apart on these issues as the campaign progressed.

Wickremasinghe, prime minister between 2001 and 2004, successfully negotiated the 2002 ceasefire with the LTTE and has a pro-liberalisation approach towards improving the nation’s economy battered by civil war.

Campaigning on a pro-devolution platform, Wickremasinghe appeared to have gained more than 75 percent of the support of the country’s minority Tamils, which may account for the slight edge he has in recent poll surveys.

Rajapakse, on the other hand, has entered into alliances with hardline nationalist parties in the Sinhalese south, dominated by the People’s Liberation Front (known for its opposition to Tamil separatism) and has pledged to safeguard the unitary nature of the country.

Consistent with his nationalist stance, Rajapakse is opposed to the privatisation of public sector assets and any downsizing of the government machinery which is seen as a means of providing employment.

The devastating Dec 26 tsunami, which left 35,000 Sri Lankans dead and another 500,000 homeless, was seen by President Chandrika Kumaratunga as a chance to build peace with the LTTE through sharing international aid but her move was blocked by pro-Sinhala groups, in court, on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

There are fears of a massive boycott in the Tamil-dominated north and east, following directions by the LTTE that the elections held no prospects for the Tamils.

“We don’t see a necessity to advise the Tamil people on the elections. They are preoccupied with their day–to-day life struggle in a post-war and post-tsunami situation and change of presidency in Colombo, judging from what the contenders promise to deliver, is totally irrelevant to them,” S P Tamilselvan, the head of the Tiger political wing said last week, soon after a meeting with parliamentary members from the pro-Tiger, Tamil National Alliance.

He said that the two main candidates were only seeking victory and that both parties had let down the Tamils. “The Tamil people don’t see any difference between the two and it is the story of the devil and the deep sea.”

The LTTE has been fighting a civil war against the Sri Lankan government for the last two decades to carve out a separate Tamil state in the north of the country, resulting in the deaths of at least 65,000 people.

Fighting has been suspended since the February 2002 truce, signed between Wickremasinghe and LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

But peace negotiations stalled in April 2004 when the Tigers pulled out following the defection of LTTE’s eastern area leader Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, alias Karuna, to government-held areas.

The renegade leader came out supporting Rajapakse earlier in the week. “Rajapakse has said he will make changes to the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE. This is an important issue for us,” Karuna said in an interview to IPS.

The Tigers have remained silent on whom they consider the better candidate. While pro-Tiger Tamil media has criticised Rajapakse on his policies, his victory would give the LTTE an excuse to return to warfare.

“Plans that lack vision, like that of Rajapakse’s, will cause confusion about the international participation in the peace efforts. The truth is, it will help the Tamils to come out of the pointless peace efforts, which are deliberately dragged out, and follow a more productive path,” the Uthayan, a Tamil newspaper published from Jaffna, said in an editorial on Nov. 14 and reproduced on the LTTE Peace Secretariat website.

Tamil voters in Jaffna and in the restive east appeared to have taken the Tiger call for an absentee protest seriously. “My family and most of our neighbours have decided to keep away from the elections,” T Eswaran, a Jaffna resident, said.

“Some of the Tamils in our area have been requested to reject their vote. I don’t think they have a mind to vote, but the Muslims and all the people I know are going to vote for the UNP as we believe and hope that only they can rebuild our country, our town in particular, which was devastated by the tsunami and which needs urgent help,” Marooz Jamaldeen, a resident of the eastern town of Kalmunai, said.

Concerns have been voiced about security in the north and east on polling day. “Continuing incidents of politically motivated violence in these areas over the past months and throughout the election campaign have created a deep sense of insecurity in the public which will undoubtedly act as a constraint in terms of the voter turn out,” the Colombo-based Centre for Monitoring Election Violence said as campaigning stopped.

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