Nittewa

I hate to do this, but Ranil is going to win. Not that it's a problem. I'd rather have him win than Mahinda.

It's dawn and there's no clear winner. Sri Lankans are not used to shit. We vote, then we stay up all night glued to the TV or the radio trying to see if the horse we backed is going to win and we usually know that before dawn. Not all the results have always come in, but things are pretty clear. By dawn we know if we should be grinning or crying. And then we go to sleep with no intention of going to work the next day. So much the better if the next day is a holiday anyway.

But not this time. It looks like a real tight race. But nothing from Kurunegala or Kegalle or Nuwara Eliya Districts have been announced yet. And when these results are released, there's little chance of them going any way but Ranil's.

The first clue came when the election commissioner was delaying results without any reason. At about 1.45 SL time he held a press conference and gave a lame reason for the delay but promised that things would be up to speed soon. What I think is that by that time much of the counting was already underway and the Government knew that they were in trouble. Not like they could really mess with the elections commissioner, but maybe they were trying to think up something creative.

But the moment the commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake started stalling for time it was very clear that Ranil was going to win. And about an hour ago the UNP agents in the counting centers confirmed that there were confident of a win.

But the results keep trickling out, and there's still no clear winner. But I think Ranil's going to win.

But here's a funny story. Out of some 83'000 registered voters in Kilinochchi, only one person voted. That one person voted for Ranil. So Ranil won Kilinochchi 100%. But that's not even remotely funny. What's really funny is that it took them till 5.13 a.m. to count it. I wonder how many people they had to count that one vote.

posted by Morquendi @  4:30 PM   || 4 opinion/s ||