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Article: Sri Lankan prime minister wins presidential election
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- November 18, 2005
- Author:
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MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press Writer
AP Worldstream
11-18-2005
Dateline: COLOMBO, Sri Lanka
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse won Sri Lanka's presidential election by a slim margin, and said Friday that once in office he wants to hold face-to-face peace talks with the secretive leader of the rebel Tamil Tigers.
Throughout the campaign, Rajapakse took a hard line on the rebels. His victory was clearly aided by a Tiger boycott that resulted in fewer than 1 percent of people voting in the country's northern Tamil heartland, a region that overwhelmingly supported his opponent, dovish opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Soon after unofficial results become public, Wickremesinghe's United ...