Sri Lanka presidential polls today, litmus test for Mahinda Rajapaksa

Colombo: Nearly six years after Sri Lanka’s army destroyed the Tamil Tigers, their ghosts are haunting a bitterly fought presidential election as the embattled incumbent seeks to boost his share of the vote.

The Tamil Tigers terrorised Sri Lanka for decades with their trademark suicide bombings and high-profile assassinations before suffering a spectacular defeat in May 2009, ending a civil war that had claimed 100,000 lives.

President Mahinda Rajapakse took credit for the no-holds-barred military offensive that all but wiped out the rebels, and won a landslide re-election victory the following year. But as the post-war gloss begins to wear off, the president has hinted darkly at a Tiger resurgence if he is not returned to power when the country goes to the polls on Thursday.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam traumatised the population and deliberately undermined previous Sri Lankan elections by carrying out bomb attacks that killed candidates and scores of supporters. In the aftermath of the war, the president bulldozed Tamil Tiger memorials and war graves to remove any trace of the fallen rebels.

But analysts say he is hoping the prospect of a resurgence may be enough to dissuade voters from ditching their strongman president. “The president thinks that the LTTE factor will influence the Sinhalese to vote for him,” rights activist Jehan Perera said. The LTTE were best known for orchestrating suicide bombings that claimed the lives of a Sri Lankan President and a former Indian prime minister.

At the height of their powers, the Tigers had a dedicated band of suicide bombers, crude submersible craft and an efficient naval unit. Norwegian-brokered peace talks that began in 2002 unravelled by 2006 when the Tigers tried to assassinate the army chief Sarath Fonseka.