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Message: <blockquote data-quote="monson" data-source="post: 30129275" data-attributes="member: 30005">Fidgeting uneasily, a revolver lying within easy reach on his desktop, Col. P.V. Pathirana listened pensively on the telephone.The call brought the day`s first bad news: A farmer in a nearby village had been gunned down just after voting in Sri Lanka`s first presidential election in 11 years.The victim, a known supporter of the ruling United National Party (UNP), had been targeted by Sinhalese militants trying to disrupt the polling.By the end of the day Monday, officials said, Sinhalese extremists had killed 15 people across the island nation about half the size of Illinois. The militants attacked polling stations and ambushed jeeps carrying ballot boxes. Early Tuesday, with results from 104 of the 182 polling stations tabulated, Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa of the UNP had 1.15 million votes, or 51 percent, according to state television.His chief rival, former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, had slightly more than 1 million votes, or 44 percent.Ossie Abeygoonesekera, head of a coalition of four small leftist parties, tallied 99,129 votes, or 4 percent.In recent months, this town along Sri Lanka`s lush southern coast, 100 miles south of the capital, Colombo, had become a battleground between security forces and the radical Sinhalese group called the Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) or People`s Liberation Front.In the last month more than 500 people had died across the south.The JVP attacked government officials, poll workers and security forces and told people not to vote. The army and paramilitary police retaliated viciously, rounding up scores of JVP suspects and sympathizers and executing them. Many simply disappeared.Pathirana said that, in defiance of the terrorist threat, people in Matara were putting their lives on the line to vote.”We expect the turnout will be 40 percent, much better than the 10 percent expected (by the JVP),” said the officer, who commands military operations in Matara. ”People are defying the ban because they have had enough, they have suffered enough at their (the JVP`s) hands.”Early Tuesday, officials said turnout in the districts reporting so far was running 42.6 percent of eligible voters. Sri Lanka, a country of 16 million people, has 9.3 million eligible voters.The voters were choosing a successor to 82-year-old President Junius Jayewardene, who was first elected in a 1977 landslide and has stayed in power by manipulating the constitution and postponing formal elections.On Tuesday, Jayewardene will formally dissolve Parliament with plans to hold legislative elections in February.The move is aimed at placating the Sinhalese militants who for several months have been trying to topple the government and take power through strikes, demonstrations, prison riots and attacks on military installations.The militants have been at odds with the government since 1987 when Jayewardene signed a peace accord aimed at ending a 5-year-old ethnic conflict between Sinhalese, who make up 80 percent of the country`s population, and the Tamil minority.The accord called for Tamil guerrillas to put down their arms and brought in Indian soldiers to enforce a truce.Under pressure from the JVP, the peace accord became a major issue in the campaign. Both main candidates vowed to end the agreement and send home more than 50,000 Indian troops locked in a guerrilla war with Tamil separatists in the north and east.Riding the crest of widespread opposition to the Indian military presence, in the last year the JVP has turned the south into a stronghold, penetrating the police, military, banks, the post office and education.By last month JVP agitations had brought daily life and the economy to a standstill. Then the military and police moved ruthlessly, and by this week observers said they had regained control of many services.On Monday the military was forcing some polling officials to work at voting centers, and in places soldiers even stepped in to run voting operations themselves. Observers say army patrols circulated through towns, urging and even ordering people to vote.Many people, weary of the years of ethnic violence, needed no urging. Voters formed long lines at polling stations along main roads where the military was out in force.Even at the village of Akurugoda, about 10 miles from Matara, the death of farmer Abeykoon Jinadasa within 300 yards of the polling station failed to force a shutdown.By midday, about one-third of the area`s 1,600 voters had appeared, and officials said voting was continuing as army reinforcements were rushed in.”Until today I did not not know if I would vote,” said one villager.”But I overcame my last-minute fears and turned up.”Originally Published: December 20, 1988 at 1:00 a.m.- <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/1988/12/20/15-killings-mar-vote-in-sri-lanka/" target="_blank">https://www.chicagotribune.com/1988/12/20/15-killings-mar-vote-in-sri-lanka/</a></blockquote>

Verification: Hathara warak wissa keeyada? (Hathara wadi karanna 20)

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