By
The Associated Press
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - As Sri Lankans waited for the results of an election that could stop the 17-year civil war, they also grieved yesterday for Sirimavo Bandaranaike, or "Mrs. B," the matriarch of the nation’s politics.
Tens of thousands of people, including women in white saris and hundreds of saffron-robed Buddhist monks, grieved for Bandaranaike, 84, who died after casting her vote yesterday.
Shelling by Tamil Tiger rebels, election-eve killings and the death of Bandaranaike, the world's first female prime minister and the mother of the current president, cast a pall over the parliamentary elections. The government imposed a curfew in Colombo between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance party took a lead in early counting.
The Election Commission said they had counted 327,123 votes — a fraction of the 8 million ballots that news reports estimated were cast.
Of the counted ballots, the People’s Alliance received around 47 percent of the votes, followed by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party with 36 percent.
Kumaratunga, who did not issue a statement about her mother’s death, sees the vote as a referendum on a proposed constitution that would give more power to Sri Lanka's north and east, where rebels are fighting for a homeland for the minority 3.2 million Tamils.
The president, who lost an eye to a suicide bomber on Dec. 18, hopes the new constitution will win over moderate Tamils, dim the appeal of the militants and bring an end to the war, has killed 63,000 people and displaced 1 million.
A bomb exploded minutes after voting ended, wounding 32 supporters of at Ragama, 19 miles northeast of the capital, police said. One of the wounded was in critical condition. Police blamed the attack on political rivalry between the People's Alliance and the United National Party.
Counting was slow as it is being done manually. The Election Commission said it was delaying counting in four of the country’s 22 electoral districts after poll monitors called for vote in some areas to be annulled due to fraud and violence.
While Sri Lankans wait for the election results, they have been requested to fly white flags in honor of their former prime minister, affectionately known as "Mrs. B." She will be buried in a state funeral Saturday. Friday and Saturday have been declared days of mourning.
Bandaranaike was elected prime minister July 20, 1960, six years before Indira Gandhi became the first woman leader of India.
She regained the office for a third time in 1994 when her daughter appointed her prime minister, but retired in August to let Kumaratunga appoint a hard-liner ahead of the elections.
Bandaranaike was replaced by Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, who believes the rebels should be wiped out and that talks should only be held with moderate Tamils.
Voters at the school where Bandaranaike cast her ballot yesterday shortly before dying of a heart attack commented on her "good fortune," rather than the ironic timing of her death. Sri Lankans, the majority of whom are believers of astrology, thought the stars had been on her side. Yesterday also marked the widow's 60th wedding anniversary.
"She was a very lucky woman," said 48-year-old T.K.H. Peiris, a polling agent.
"She had been sick so long, but it is amazing that she was able to cast her vote before she died."
The race yesterday was primarily between the two main parties: Kamaratunga's People's Alliance and Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party. A record 5,477 candidates were vying for 225 seats in parliament in the election.
Wickremesinghe has said that if his United National Party comes into power, it would immediately de-escalate the fighting in the northern Jaffna Peninsula and then negotiate with the rebels.
Several hours before news of Bandaranaike’s death spread across this island nation off the southern tip of India, Tamil Tigers shelled an administrative center in Jaffna, which has been under siege since 1995.
Just after the polls closed, the two leading parties leveled accusations of vote-rigging.
The independent Center for Monitoring Election Violence urged the Elections Commissioner to annul the votes in at least 210 of the country’s 9,500 polling centers.
The opening of the vote was preceded by two attacks that left three people dead, including a 6-year-old daughter of a ruling party official, police said.
The fatalities brought the total number of people killed in election violence to 66 since campaigning started five weeks ago.
