Dr.P.A.Samaraweera, Australia

A period of high drama and a crucial election ended on Tuesday dishing an overwhelming majority of 1.8 million votes giving the President a land-slide victory. The forecast by international media, some local media, Peace Councils, NGO’s, anti-govt., forces etc., was that the election is not a cake walk for the President but would be a close tie. As usual, they were skeptical but the election proved them wrong.
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One main reason is that the President had withstood international pressureƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ which became incessant towards the end of the war.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Therefore, the people had faith and trust in him. In contrast, his predecessors conducted previous wars half-heartedly and relent to foreign powers and were led the garden path by the LTTE.
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The President kept to his election pledge made during the first election, to end the war and liberate the country from the invincible LTTE. This made a big difference compared to the previous Presidents who kept going after dubious stagnant peace talks.
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His cultural identity and his political ideology aligned with 40 years experience in politics was an asset to him. He had contact with the people at grass root level and could visualise their problems. Compared this with his main opponent, who had no political party, experience and not even the vote. Further,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sarath Fonseka had a ‘cosmetic culture’ as he wore the national dress and visited temples and paid poojas only after resigning from theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ army.
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The President never made bogus promises to get people’s votes. People were aware that Gen.(Rtd.) Fonseka was holding the carrot and stick when he was talking about handouts.
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The President refused demands by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) while Sarath Fonseka made an alliance with LTTE proxy parties such as the TNA, Mano Ganeshan and so on. There were also strong rumours that he had a secret pact with the TNA to merge the North and East.
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The JVP is in a world of their own and the people are not with them after their 2 abortive insurrections which led to the death of thousands of young people. The UNP is no better as their cease-fire agreementsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ hadƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ only strengthened the LTTE in the past. They were blind to LTTE activities.
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Therefore, it became obvious to the people, especiallyƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ in theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ rural heart-land from where the valiantƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ soldiers came, that a vote to the President is a nail in the LTTE coffin, while a vote to Sarath Fonseka is a life-line to the LTTE.
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As such, the propaganda by the anti-government forces could not match the faith and trust the people had in the President.