Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been re-elected for a second term. Speaking exclusively to NDTV's Maya Mirchandani, he said with 58 percent of votes he was not worried about his opponent challenging the result of the election.
Full transcript of the interview:
Joining us in Colombo in his residence is the man of the moment, President Mahinda Rajapaksa who won this presidential election with a thumping majority. President Rajapaksa thank you for giving NDTV some of your time.
NDTV: When you were planning this election, one of the main focuses was working towards a settlement with the Tamil population, in the last election they were not able to vote so they didn't have a voice, so this time are you looking at taking a political settlement with them forward?
Rajapaksa: Yes, I have said I have a plan, am going to hold parliamentary elections they are due in April so after that, with new leaders I will be inviting them to have a dialogue.
NDTV: A lot of Tamil population voted for your opponent will that come in the way your dialogue with them?
Rajapaksa: I mean this is what, now they were deprived of voting for so many years so they got the opportunity to elect anybody. They voted with the opponent or whether they voted with me, the solution must come. That shows they at least have faith in leadership and democracy, its immaterial who the vote was given to. So that is something I wanted. So now it is up to the new leadership so after elections I will invite them to discuss, dialogue, and I will give them my solutions. It is in my manifesto, I will do it.
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Full transcript of the interview:
Joining us in Colombo in his residence is the man of the moment, President Mahinda Rajapaksa who won this presidential election with a thumping majority. President Rajapaksa thank you for giving NDTV some of your time.
NDTV: When you were planning this election, one of the main focuses was working towards a settlement with the Tamil population, in the last election they were not able to vote so they didn't have a voice, so this time are you looking at taking a political settlement with them forward?
Rajapaksa: Yes, I have said I have a plan, am going to hold parliamentary elections they are due in April so after that, with new leaders I will be inviting them to have a dialogue.
NDTV: A lot of Tamil population voted for your opponent will that come in the way your dialogue with them?
Rajapaksa: I mean this is what, now they were deprived of voting for so many years so they got the opportunity to elect anybody. They voted with the opponent or whether they voted with me, the solution must come. That shows they at least have faith in leadership and democracy, its immaterial who the vote was given to. So that is something I wanted. So now it is up to the new leadership so after elections I will invite them to discuss, dialogue, and I will give them my solutions. It is in my manifesto, I will do it.
