The United Nations said it is unable to meet a request by Sri Lanka to send observers for the Jan. 26 presidential election because of time constraints.
“In the light of the limited lead time available, and since, as per practice, the United Nations election observation requires a mandate from the General Assembly” the UN won’t provide observers, Martin Nesirky, a spokesman for Secretary- General Ban Ki-moonsaid in New York.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa called the election two years before his mandate expires as he bids to capitalize on his government defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May, ending a 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland. The U.K. last month said Sri Lanka must ensure the ballot covers all communities, including Tamils in the north and east.
The leading challenger to 64-year-old Rajapaksa is opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka, the former army chief who led the battle against the Tigers. Fonseka, 59, this week won backing from the Tamil National Alliance, which holds 22 seats in the 225-member parliament.
Sri Lanka’s first election in recent history to be held in a unitary state will be free and fair, Cabinet spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said last month. Parliamentary elections will follow some time before April.
Economic Recovery
Sri Lanka’s $41 billion economy has been boosted by rebuilding efforts since the conflict ended, expanding 4.2 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the fastest pace in 2009.
Central bank governor Nivard Cabral said three days ago the South Asian island’s gross domestic product will probably grow 7 percent this year after an expansion of 3.5 percent in 2009.
Rajapaksa, who leads the United People’s Freedom Alliance, has pledged to establish a united country after the civil war. Fonseka, standing as the candidate for the main opposition parties Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or the People’s Liberation Front, and the United National Party, says there have been moves to take credit for the defeat of the LTTE away from the army.
Fonseka and the TNA reached a “conditional agreement,” raising the question whether he accepts the alliance’s call for the north and east to be merged, according to media reports cited on the government’s Web site.
No Merger
The government will never merge the two regions, Rajapaksa said earlier this week. The opposition is engaged in the politics of false promises, he said at a meeting with teachers and workers in the capital, Colombo.
A majority of TNA lawmakers consider the “only meaningful way” to defeat Rajapaksa in the election is to call on people to vote for Fonseka, TamilNet, a Web site that gives reports from the Tamil perspective, cited Rajavarothayam Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader, as saying yesterday.
There is strong opposition among the community to supporting either candidate “as Tamils believe they are both implicated in war crimes” Tamilnet reported.
Tamils make up almost 12 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 20 million people. Sinhalese account for 74 percent, according to a 2001 census. As many as 600,000 Tamils fled Sri Lanka to escape the conflict, more than half of them going to the U.K. or Canada.
The World Bank said last month it will provide $182 million in loans to help rebuild the Northern Province. The assistance includes $77 million for the settlement of 100,000 displaced people and $105 million to build roads.
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