Colombo // Maithripala Sirisena was sworn in as Sri Lankan president yesterday after a shock victory over incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa in an election dominated by charges of corruption and growing authoritarianism.
Mr Sirisena took the oath of office hours after Mr Rajapaksa conceded defeat, saying he accepted the decision of Sri Lankans who turned out in force on Thursday to vote him out after 10 years in office.
The new president said Sri Lanka would mend its ties with the international community, a reference to Mr Rajapaksa’s falling out with the West over allegations of wartime rights abuses by the military.
“We will have a foreign policy that will mend our ties with the international community and all international organisations in order that we derive maximum benefit for our people,” Mr Sirisena said.
Celebratory firecrackers could be heard in Colombo as he was sworn in at the capital’s Independence Square along with the new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, head of the opposition United National Party.
Mr Sirisena, a former health minister who united a fractured opposition to pull off an unlikely victory, thanked Mr Rajapakse for a “fair election that allowed me to be the president”.
He was elected with a 51.28 per cent of the vote to the former leader’s 47.58 per cent.
It was a remarkable reverse for Rajapaksa, who had appeared certain of victory when he called snap polls in November.
Thilanga Sumathipala, an MP with Mr Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party, said the outgoing president had a “very emotional” meeting with ministers as he bowed out on Friday.
Mr Sirisena has promised sweeping reforms of the presidency and said he woulf transfer many of its executive powers to parliament.
He was elected on a tide of resentment against Mr Rajapakse, who rewrote the constitution after his re-election in 2010 to remove the two-term limit on the presidency and give himself more powers over public servants and judges.
During the campaign, Mr Sirisena said that he had warned Rajapakse to change his ways or risk new unrest in the country.
“He was leading the country down a dangerous road to destruction,” he had said, promising a “constitutional revolution” if elected.
Mr Rajapakse enjoyed huge support among majority Sinhalese voters after overseeing the end of a separatist war by ethnic Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009. But critics say he failed to bring about reconciliation with Tamils following his crushing victory.
He is also accused of undermining the independence of the judiciary and has packed the government with relatives, sparking resentment even within his own party.
Mr Rajapakse fell out with the West over allegations his troops killed 40,000 Tamil civilians at the end of the civil war, and refused to cooperate with a UN-mandated investigation.
He cultivated close links with China, which has invested heavily in Sri Lanka, seeking to counter rival regional power India’s influence.
The opposition has promised to address international concerns over war crimes and normalise relations with western nations and India, whose prime minister, Narendra Modi, congratulated Mr Sirisena.
Mr Sirisena’s decision to run triggered a slew of defections and became a rallying point for disaffection with Mr Rajapakse and his powerful family.
His vision for the country ties in closely with the free-market policies of the centre-right UNP which provided him with the political base to contest the election.
But analysts say he faces a challenge to unite the rainbow coalition of parties from right-wingers to Marxists that helped him secure victory.
The vote passed off largely peacefully, although there were some reports of intimidation in Tamil areas.
It came days before a visit to the island by Pope Francis next week, which some Catholic leaders had said should be cancelled in the event of violence.
Election monitors said large numbers of people voted in the Tamil-dominated former war zones of the north and east, which are heavily militarised.
Tamils are Sri Lanka’s largest minority, accounting for 13 per cent of the population, and helped bring down Mr Rajapakse by supporting his rival.
“We voted to get our dignity back,” said a Tamil journalist who asked not to be named.
“We may have good roads and a new railway line, but what we want is to live in peace.”
* Agence France-Presse