No ethnic polarisation shown in poll – DEW

Lakshmi DE SILVA

Though the Tamil National Alliance leader R.Sampanthan had made a comment that the presidential election revealed deep ethnic lines President Mahinda Rajapaksa had eschewed communalism. The recent presidential election results clearly show President Mahinda Rajapaksa had polled 26 percent votes in the North and 39 percent votes in the Eastern Province than in 2005 election. It shows that there is no ethnic polarization though the TNA Leader tries to bring it up, Constitutional Affairs Minister D.E.W Gunasekara said.

Addressing a Socialist Alliance press conference at the Dr. N.M. Perera Centre, Borella yesterday the Minister explained though Sammanthurai was a Muslim area, the election result this year was 19,991 votes for President Mahinda Rajapaksa and 27,000 votes for NDF candidate. Even the Catholic belt voted for President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

No one could vote without the National Identity Card and even the presidential candidate Dr. Wickramabahu Karunarathna could not vote without the consent and a letter from the Elections Commissioner. This election was the only one that did not witness any ballot rigging he added.

The Minister said the majority of those who voted for the President were working class people who could not be deceived by false promises like the a wage hike of Rs 10,000 for Government servants or the plantations workers. The mass media and high tech IT was used during the election campaign with 43 radio stations and 12 TV channels as well as the internet but the people had made up their minds. In the final days the Opposition parties backed by certain foreign powers were trying the stage a Latin American type coup but that too failed.