As I write, it looks like the strongman and former wartime defence chief Gotabhaya Rajapaksa will win the Sri Lanka presidential election, his main opponent, Sajith Premadasa having conceded victory before the final votes are counted. Political pundits believe that when this has happened, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa will have won 52-54% of the vote, thus surpassing the required 50% without needing to consider second choices.

Whilst he is adored as a tough guy by many though, he is despised by others so we can but hope for level headed behaviour.

As yesterday, the streets of Colombo remain near-silent and devoid of all but occasional traffic so we\’ll see what the afternoon and tomorrow brings.

Steve