Sri Lankan hard-liner leads by slim margin

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka’s prime minister – a hard-liner toward Tamil Tiger rebels – took a slim lead Friday in early results from the island’s presidential election, in which grenade attacks and intimidation kept many minority Tamils from the polls.

With about 15 percent of the votes tallied, the election commission said Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse had 852,213 votes to 782,985 for his closest rival, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Balloting was smooth Thursday in western and southern parts of the island nation and overall turnout was slightly less than 10 million, or about 75 percent of 13.3 million registered voters, election officials said.

But in the north and east – territory of the feared Tamil Tiger rebels – grenade attacks, roadblocks and fear kept many Tamils from voting. Others heeded a boycott called by pro-rebel groups that complained neither of the main candidates would help them win a homeland in northeastern Sri Lanka.

The Tamils make up just under 20 percent of Sri Lanka’s 19 million people but were potential kingmakers in the tightly contested election.