Charles Haviland from Colombo

	Tournout was low during the elections

The results came after repolling in two parts of the country which were hit by violence and thuggery on election day two weeks ago.

Tamil vote

Mr Rajapaksa’s broad coalition has won a thumping 144 seats in a parliament of 225.

The traditional main opposition party is reduced to almost a rump with only 60.

Only two other groups won seats. Parts of the Tamil-dominated north and east fell to an alliance seen as a proxy for the defeated Tamil Tigers.

Party of the defeated and now jailed presidential candidate, Sarath Fonseka, has seven MPs including General Fonseka himself.

Miracle of Asia

He may or may not be permitted to take his oath in parliament on Thursday.

There’s little doubt that the president, who was himself re-elected in January, scored so well because he’s seen as the man who last year rid the country of Tiger separatist violence with an all-out military victory.

For that he’s hugely popular, especially among the rural Sinhalese majority.

The pragmatically inclined leader says that through economic development he’ll make Sri Lanka into the “miracle of Asia”.

Human Rights

He now has vast powers until at least 2016; if he can encourage just six opposition legislators to defect, he’ll have a two-thirds majority which will help him change the constitution.

A newspaper, the Sunday Times, said the country also expects him to maintain standards on media freedom and accommodating dissent. Human rights campaigners say there are blemishes in that regard.

A new report by an international media group places Sri Lanka fourth among countries in which it says journalists are killed and governments fail to solve the crimes.