1.
GV Deserted street in Colombo.
0.04

2.
SV Chief Election Commissioner Chandanand D'Silva checking final results
0.24

3.
CU PULL BACK TO GV Mr Jayewardene seated with colleagues
0.43

4.
SV Mr D'Silva announcing results
1.08

5.
Mr. Jayewardene being garlanded and applauded
1.22

6.
SV/GV Mr. Jayewardene leaving the election office in official car (2 shots)
1.38




Initials RdeL/BB





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Sri Lankans have given president Junius Jayewardene a second six-year mandate to carry out the free-market economic policies which he hopes will transform the Indian Ocean island republic. Mr. Jayewardene said the results, announced on October 21, were an endorsement of his policies. The poll was supervised by Sri Lanka's Chief Election Commissioner Chandanand D'Silva who personally checked the final tally and officially declared the poll. Mr. Jayewardene said the state of emergency he had imposed hours after polling closed would be lifter. The state of emergency had been declared to prevent the sort of post-election violence which had followed previous elections, but there were no reports of trouble in the streets of the capital, Colombo. The 76-year-old president polled 52.9 per cent of the 6.6 million votes cast. His closest rival, Hector Kobbekaduwa, of the former ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party, received 39 per cent of the votes. Four other presidential candidates, including three Marxists, polled less than five per cent.