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Saturday, 3 January 2015 03:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The main Tamil party has already endorsed Rajapaksa’s chief rival Maithripala Sirisena in the 8 January 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.
“The devil you know is better than the unknown angel,” he said in Sinhala, speaking through a translator. “I am the known devil, so please vote for me.”
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 water supplies,” 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 Jaffna but he cancelled his plans at the last minute, leaving his transport minister 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.
Tamils account for around 13% 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 around 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 using the military to prevent Tamils turning out to vote on 8 January.
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.
