COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa swept to a second term in office, but his chief rival vowed to challenge the results and for hours insisted he was being held a virtual prisoner in a tony hotel surrounded by hundreds of soldiers.
Rajapaksa tried to brush off the election dispute Wednesday, calling on Sri Lankans to unite for the tough task of rebuilding a nation shattered by a generation of ethnic warfare.
“From today onward, I am the president of everyone, whether they voted for me or not,” he said.
Rajapaksa will now have to face Sri Lankans’ growing anxiety over the country’s economic stagnation, and he will be expected to tackle the tensions between his Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority that fueled the nation’s civil war.
What had been expected to be a tight election between two architects of the government’s victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels last year turned into a rout. Rajapaksa captured 57 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s polling, while Sarath Fonseka won 40 percent, according to the election commission.
Fonseka, however, vowed to challenge the results in court.
