COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday signed the proclamation for an early mid-term Presidential poll, ahead of the parliamentary elections, due in April 2010.
Rajapaksa instructed his Secretary, Lalith Weeratunga, to gazette the Presidential proclamation to enable the Commissioner of Elections to conduct the poll, the Information Department said. The state-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation quoted Weeratunga as saying that the gazette notification would be issued at a “suitable time.” However, the Minister of Education, Sushil Premajayantha, told the BBC that the Election Commission would notify the election and call for nominations on Tuesday.
Some political sources said that the election might be held on January 23, but others said that it could be anytime in mid-January.
Rajapaksa has decided to go in for the Presidential poll to capitalise on the victory over the LTTE and also stem the opposition’s bid to dethrone him by propping up the disgruntled war hero, former Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka, as his opponent. He is keen on disproving Fonseka’s claim that that it was only the army under his leadership which had won the war for Sri Lanka, and that he was more popular than the President.