COLOMBO, Nov 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Gotabaya Rajapaksa won Sri Lanka’s presidential election with 52.25 percent of the vote, well ahead of his nearest rival Sajith Premadasa on 41.99 percent, the election commission said Sunday.
Rajapaksa conducted a nationalist campaign with a promise of security and a vow to crush religious extremism in the Buddhist-majority country following April 21 suicide bomb attacks by homegrown jihadi extremists.