Colombo, Jan. 26: The Sri Lankan presidential election on Tuesday was unexpectedly peaceful but a bolt from the blue has hit the people — the main challenger to President Mahinda Rajapakse in this election was himself not a voter. Common Opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka’s former Army Chief, conceded on Tuesday evening that he does not have a vote, thereby ending the day-long suspense about why he had not turned up at the poll booth while the President was among the early voters. 

A US green card holder, Gen. Fonseka and his coalition, which includes UNP leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Tamil National Alliance, "kept the nation in the dark about this biggest fraud on the people", said independent presidential candidate Sarath Kongahage, demanding an "unconditional apology" from the Fonseka coalition

In fact, Mr Kongahage had moved the Sri Lankan Supreme Court earlier this month seeking the disqualification of Gen. Fonseka from the presidential race since he was a US green card holder with an intent to migrate to that country as a full-fledged US citizen, and that meant his loyalties rested more with the US than with Sri Lanka. The ex-general "is keeping his green card in case he loses the presidential election and is chased out of the country," said Mr Kongahage, a former MP, in his court petition. Sources said the Rajapakse camp is consulting legal experts to move the Supreme Court against Gen. Fonseka in case he wins the poll.

However, Gen. Fonseka insisted that he was "fully qualified" under Article 31 of the Sri Lankan Constitution to contest the election even though he was not a voter. He had registered himself in the 2008 voter registration list but had not received a voter card and his name was not included in the voter list. "I am a citizen of this country, which is why I was the Chief of Defence Staff and the Army commander," he said.

Supporting him, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, a member of the Fonseka team, pointed out that Article 31 of the Sri Lankan Constitution stipulates that any Sri Lankan citizen "qualified" to vote in the election could contest in it, and there was nothing to disqualify Gen. Fonseka as a voter. Election Commissioner Dayananada Dissanayaka also backed this view citing the Constitution.

While the President and his senior team kept mum about Gen. Fonseka missing out on voting, his minister from a breakaway Muslim group said the ex-general was "part of an international conspiracy" against Sri Lanka. "It’s a tragedy for our country that a person aspiring to be its President is not even a voter," declared minister A.L.M. Athaullah, who belongs to the east.

It remains to be seen how Gen. Fonseka not voting will shape out on Wednesday when the poll result emerge. Should the ex-general win, Mr Rajapakse’s followers could explode in anger, accusing him of "cheating" the electorate by withholding information that he is not a voter. The common Opposition candidate disappeared and it was left to Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe to handle the media at his poll office.

"We are keeping the general in a safe place after we got information that the government is planning to arrest him. The military has moved four armoured vehicles into the city," Mr Asanga Gunaratne, a Fonseka aide, told this newspaper.

The counting of votes began almost immediately after polling ended around 4 pm. The ballot boxes were transported to 160 polling divisions from the approximately 11,000 booths spread across the country. The results from these divisions will begin trickling in by midnight and the sixth executive President of Sri Lanka will be announced early Wednesday, according to a senior Election Commission official.

While the official voting percentages are not yet available, poll observers said about 70 per cent polling was seen in the Sinhala south, while only about 20 per cent of the Tamil electorate turned up to vote in Jaffna up north and an estimated 40 per cent in the east, which has a mix of Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese. "We expected that less than 30 per cent of the seven lakh odd registered voters will turn up to vote because many in the list do not live here anymore, having either gone away to other countries or living in the IDP camps," said minister Douglas Devananda, leader of the EPDP, now camping in Jaffna.

R. Bhagwan Singh