තම පරාජය තහවුරු වෙමින් තිබියදී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා දැඩි ව්‍යාකූලත්වයට පත්වී තිබෙන බව ඔහුගේ මැතිවරණ කතාවලින්ම පැහැදිලි වෙමින් තිබේ. මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරක කටයුතු ආරම්භයේදී ටෙලිප්‍රොම්ප්ටරය යොදා ගනිමින් කලින් සැලසුම් කළ කතාවක් කළ අතර මේ වනවිට එය මුළුමනින්ම ඉවත දමා නන්දෙඩවිල්ලක් බවට පත් කරගෙන ඇත.
ඊයේ (02) යාපනයේ දොරේ අප්පා ක්‍රීඩාංගනයේදී පවත්වන ලද රැලිය ආමන්ත්‍රණය කරමින් තමා යකෙකු බවත් මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා නොදන්නා දේව දූතයෙකු බවත් ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබේ.......... video
http://www.lankatruth.com/home/sinhala/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13469:video-&catid=36:2011-10-17-04-27-38&Itemid=72
Mahinda asks Tamils to re-elect ‘known devil’
January 3, 2015, 6:56 pm JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Jan 2, 2015 (AFP) - Sri Lanka’s embattled President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged minority Tamils to back him in next week’s election, calling himself the "known devil", as he pitched for votes in the country’s former war zone Friday.
While he remains popular among ethnic majority Sinhalese voters, Rajapaksa is widely detested by members of the country’s biggest minority after overseeing the crushing of a 37-year Tamil rebellion.
The main Tamil party has already endorsed Rajapakse’s chief rival Maithripala Sirisena in the January 8 election but the incumbent told voters in the northern Jaffna region that he was committed to improving their livelihoods, pointing to improvements in infrastructure.
"This is my 11th visit to Jaffna as president," Rajapaksa, who has been in power for nearly a decade, told a rally.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=117088
"The devil you know is better than the unknown angel," he said in Sinhala, speaking through a translator.
"I am that known devil," he said pointing to himself."
The 69-year-old, who is South Asia’s longest-serving leader after coming to power in 2005, then listed a series of infrastructure projects that had been completed since the end of the Tamil separatist conflict in 2009.
"We gave you electricity, we gave you new schools and now we want to give you proper irrigation system," he said, in a region that was devastated by the separatist conflict.
Rajapaksa had been due to inaugurate the latest stretch of a reopened rail link from the capital Colombo to the Jaffna peninsula but he cancelled his plans at the last minute, leaving his transport minister Kumar Welgama to do the honours.
The president said that Sirisena had shown little interest in the region, saying he had been "an infrequent visitor" to Jaffna which is the capital of the Tamil-majority region.
- Tamil vote crucial -
Sri Lankan Tamils account for around 13 percent of the 15 million people entitled to cast their ballots next Thursday and their choice of candidate could be crucial to the outcome of what is shaping up to be a tight contest.
Rajapaksa had been the clear favourite but a series of defections by allies, including his one-time health minister Sirisena, have thrown the contest wide open and the president now needs every vote he can muster.
Although the economy has been growing at rates of over seven percent in the post-war era, many voters say that ruling party cronies have been the only ones to really benefit.
Rajapaksa has also been accused of growing authoritarianism, with critics pointing to his sacking last year of the chief justice as proof of his anti-democratic credentials.
Both local and international rights groups have accused government forces of killing up to 40,000 Tamil civilians while defeating the Tamil Tigers in the bloody finale to a conflict that claimed more than 100,000 lives.
Rajapaksa has insisted that no civilians were killed and at the same time has refused to cooperate with a UN-sanctioned international investigation into allegations of war crimes under his leadership.
The president arrived in Jaffna, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Colombo, a day after the main opposition accused him of planning to use the military to prevent Tamils turning out to vote on January 8.
The largest Tamil party which controls the highest level of local government in Jaffna, the Tamil National Alliance, earlier this week endorsed Sirisena after accusing Rajapaksa of failing to ensure ethnic reconciliation after crushing Tamil separatists.
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