A bullish Mahinda Rajapakse said he was confident of staging a shock return to power as Sri Lanka's prime minister after elections Monday, held just months after he was toppled as president. The election commissioner said the vote, called a year ahead of schedule by President Maithripala Sirisena who ousted the veteran leader in January, had been one of the most peaceful in Sri Lanka's history.
Results are not expected until early Tuesday, but analysts predict that no single party will win a majority and that Rajapakse's hard-line nationalism will undermine his quest for coalition partners. Since his surprise victory over his former mentor, Sirisena has struggled to impose his authority over his United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and was powerless to prevent Rajapakse from standing as one of its candidates.
He has threatened to invoke his executive powers to prevent his combative predecessor from becoming prime minister, but Rajapakse is hoping a strong showing will force Sirisena to back down. "We will win and that is certain," Rajapakse said shortly after voting in his home constituency of Hambantota at the astrologically auspicious time of 10.53 am.