Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa faces crucial poll
World
The polls are still relatively calm in the security and close coordination
By President Mahinda Rajapakse choose millions of Sri Lanka in a closed unexpectedly election against one of his former allies pits.
Mr. Rajapaksa in office since 2005, choosing as said two years, with analysts predicting early with an easy victory.
But many voters because behind the challenger, former Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena collected.
There are armed police officers in each polling station due to election concerns will not be free and peaceful.
Rajapakse with a wave of popularity after the Civil War ended in 2009, but is now facing allegations of nepotism.
His parents fulfill many of the most powerful and influential positions in the country, and critics accuse him of running the government like a family.
Analysts say Mr. Sirisena seems to have turned this perception, so that the profits among the Sinhalese who vote in general for Rajapaksa.
Mr. Sirisena is also expected that the majority of ethnic minorities from which to earn about 30% of the Sri Lankan population
Maithripala Sirisena (C) surprised observers by great support
But Mahinda Rajapakse is still popular, and defeat would be a surprise,
In the scene: Yogita Limaye, BBC News, Colombo
There has been a steady stream of voters at the polling booth I'm in Colombo.
Aziz Hanifa, 50, came to agree with his wife and mother. He wants the end of corruption and what he calls "Monarch" rule.
His 74-year-old mother says she recalls the country in turbulent times and wants peace.
It is the first time elected undergraduate student Harintha Tillekaratne in a presidential election. He wants more economic development and a higher quality of education.
It is expected that the turnout will be high. So far, election day has been relatively peaceful.
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Mr. Rajapakse remains very popular popular with many in the Sinhalese majority.
His ballot in his constituency on Thursday, the president said he was confident he would be the country's leadership should be given for the third time.
"We will have a resounding victory. That is very clear. From tomorrow we will begin the implementation of our manifesto," he told reporters after the news agency AFP.
He has over a period of impressive economic growth the Presidency and still has political capital is not the leader who brought an end to the war.
The choice is the second presidential election since the end of the war
Many more voters in the north they make to the polls compared to 2010 was
Sri Lanka is divided along ethnic lines and the Tamil rebels launched a campaign for a separate state in the 1972nd
Rajapakse government crushed the rebellion, but only after a bloody conflict, thousands of people killed.
Both sides of the civil war 26 years have been accused of atrocities.
The government has always denied the allegations that killed thousands of civilians during the last attack of the army against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The prospect of the current election - the second presidential election since the end of the war - has been affected by violence and allegations of intimidation.
On Wednesday, an opposition activist died a day after he fired organized a rally.
Voters in the northern city of Jaffna Tamil-dominated there was a loud bang as polling stations opened, some reports that a grenade was thrown.
But observers said the vote was peaceful throughout the island.
Rajapakse was elected last in 2010, when he defeated his former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who was later jailed on charges of government involvement in war crimes.
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