Sri Lanka

Colombo, Nov 20, GANASHAKTI: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will resign on Thursday, his office said on Wednesday, days after the ruling party's candidate lost the presidential election to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

"Wickremesinghe will resign from his position tomorrow," his office said.

He was under pressure to quit and handover the government to the opposite camp after Rajapaksa won the presidential election on Saturday.

Rajapaksa defeated Wickremesinghe's deputy Sajith Premadasa.

Colombo, Nov 17 (AFP) Sri Lanka's former wartime defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa took an early lead Sunday in a fiercely fought presidential election conducted under high security seven months after deadly Islamist attacks.

Rajapaksa, the main opposition candidate, was leading with 52.87 percent while housing minister Sajith Premadasa had 39.67 percent out of half a million votes counted, according to the Election Commission.

Leftist Anura Kumara Dissanayake was in third place with 4.69 percent. There were 32 other candidates for the top job.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka’s former wartime defense chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa was set to become president after his main rival conceded defeat on Sunday in an election that came months after bombings by Islamist militants threw the country into turmoil.

Rajapaksa oversaw the military defeat of Tamil separatists under his brother and then president Mahinda Rajapaksa 10 years ago. He has promised strong leadership to secure the island of 22 million people, the majority of whom are Sinhalese Buddhists.

COLOMBO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said on Saturday that the country's presidential polls had concluded peacefully without any major injuries or violence reported and with a voter turnout of over 80 percent.

Deshapriya told journalists in the capital after the voting that in total seven violent incidents had been reported from across the country which included shooting and stabbing while 248 minor violations such as threats and intimidation had been reported.

November 16, 2019, PTI/GANASHAKTI: Gunmen opened fire on a convoy of buses carrying minority Muslim voters in northwest Sri Lanka on Saturday, hours before polling in presidential elections got under way, police said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, but a police official said the attackers had burnt tyres on the road and set up makeshift road blocks to ambush the convoy of more than 100 vehicles.

COLOMBO, Nov 14 (NNN-ADA) – Competition is tight between the New Democratic Front’s (NDF) candidate, Sajith Premadasa, and former Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP).

Rajapaksa’s final rally took place in the town of Homagama on Wednesday evening, while Premadasa concluded his campaign in Colombo.

Thus far, 35 candidates have submitted their nominations, while two — Milroy Fernando and Dr. I.M. Illyas — have openly urged supporters to vote for Premadasa.

COLOMBO, Oct 11 (NNN-XINHUA) – Sri Lanka’s Elections Commission said, the ballot paper for the upcoming presidential elections would be 26 inches (66 cm), the longest in Sri Lankan history, due to a record number of 35 candidates running for presidency.

Local media reports, quoting Elections Commissioner, Mahinda Deshapriya, said that, the ballot paper would incur additional printing costs, and bigger ballot boxes would have to be set up, in all voting centres across the island country, to store the longer ballot papers.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has decided not to seek reelection next month after failing to fulfill many of the promises of his first term.

A record 35 candidates filed nominations Monday for the Nov. 16 election, with former defense chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa considered the favorite.

Rajapaksa, who served as defense chief under his brother, former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is popular for his part in ending the government’s long civil war against ethnic minority Tamil rebels a decade ago.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A Sri Lankan court on Friday dismissed a legal case challenging presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Sri Lankan citizenship, removing a major barrier he faced in contesting the Nov. 16 poll.

The three-judge panel of Appeal Court unanimously dismissed the case that challenged the validity of Rajapaksa’s Sri Lankan citizenship, which he obtained in 2005.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A court in Sri Lanka set up a three-judge panel on Monday to hear a petition challenging the citizenship of presidential nominee Gotabaya Rajapaksa, which could disqualify the hardline former defense chief from the Nov. 16 vote if it succeeds.

Rajapaksa is widely seen as the election frontrunner because of his popularity among majority Sinhala Buddhists over his role in ending a 26-year civil war in 2009, ushering in a decade of relative peace until Easter Day bombings that killed 250 people.