Colombo - Sri Lanka is to hold a presidential election on January 26, a government spokesman said Friday. Nominations for the election need to be received by December 17, the spokesman said.
Incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa decided to call the election two years ahead of schedule, claiming that he wanted to seek a fresh mandate from the people in the north and east who were not able to vote in the previous 2005 election due to a boycott called by the Tamil rebels.
Tamil rebels were crushed in a military operation which ended on May 18.
The joint opposition is fielding the former army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, who spearheaded the military campaign against the rebels.
