Mahinda Rajapaksa, a powerful and popular head of government and state, has the way cleared for him for the next six years and more. In a recent conversation with N. Ram lasting three and a half hours at Temple Trees in Colombo, he covered, and answered questions on, a range of subjects. Excerpts from his on the record comments and responses.

Huge victory in presidential election

I was not surprised . Because in the Provincial Councils, if you count the majority, it was 2.5 million. I knew that if you took 1 million out of that, I would have won with 1.5 million. And I knew what the pulse of the people in villages was. Even in Colombo district, outside the municipal area, they gave me a good majority. I knew from the start that my majority would be there.

And I am not surprised about the North East results. I was encouraged by that. I had the election, I knew that people must vote, they must be given a chance to elect their own President. Twenty six per cent, I am satisfied with it. In every village, I got some votes, didn t I

Factors behind the decisive win

One thing is that people wanted experience a politician to lead their country. I have been in politics for 40 years. Suddenly a military man coming in, I don t think people trusted him. They were frightened by the way that he talked, shouting at people, blackguarding people. He showed his inexperience on economic affairs,

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