Sri Lanka’s president hit by defection

Sri Lanka’s main opposition presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka (L) meets with former President Chandrika Kumaratunga at her home in the town of Nittambuwa yesterday.

Sri Lanka’s president suffered a major defection yesterday when the matriarch of his party pledged support for the main opposition candidate ahead of tomorrow’s fiercely contested election.
Former president Chandrika Kumaratunga met the common opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka, a former army general, and endorsed his bid to oust incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse.
“I took the decision to end four years of silence, as I am deeply concerned about the violence, intimidation and corruption,” Kumaratunga told reporters and urged her supporters to vote for Fonseka.
Kumaratunga is a key symbol of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent in the ruling coalition.
The socialist SLFP was founded by her late prime minister father, who was succeeded by his widow, who also went on to become the world’s first elected woman premier in 1960. Kumaratunga took over the party in 1993.
Campaigning for January 26th’s presidential election ended on Saturday night with both Fonseka and Rajapakse expressing confidence of winning amid a highly personal and bitter contest between the two sides.
The two men were the architects of the government’s victory over Tamil Tiger rebels, whose 37-year violent struggle for a Tamil homeland was crushed in May.
Kumaratunga’s family has strong support among SLFP activists and her endorsement is seen as a boost to Fonseka, who is backed by the right-wing United National Party as well as the Marxist JVP, or People’s Liberation Front.
“Our party has deteriorated in recent years and I see an opportunity to revive it through a change of the present culture of violence, intimidation, corruption and nepotism,” she said.
Police and troops impeded journalists attending Kumaratunga’s meeting with Rajapakse at her ancestral home outside the capital. The media bus was searched by heavily armed troops before it was stopped a second time by police.