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Sri Lanka's election commissioner on Thursday accepted a record 22 nominations for the January presidential poll, in which economic policies, and not war strategy, are expected to dominate the campaign. The candidates for the January 26 poll include incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former army chief, General Sarath Fonseka, who led the military to victory over Tamil rebels after a 25-year civil war.
Successive governments have won national polls promising to end the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, while blaming the conflict for any failure to implement economic and political reforms. About 14 million of the island nation's 21 million population are eligible to vote. Fonseka has talked about ending corruption and abolishing the powerful executive presidency.
While Rajapaksa in his campaign has focused on post-war peace and development, without giving any specific policies on how he would achieve that. Rajapaksa, who called the elections two years before his term expires as he tries to take credit for ending the way, is backed by the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), which includes business groups and some minority parties.

Copyright Reuters, 2009

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