Sirisena officially declared Sri Lanka's new president

Colombo, Jan 9: Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya Friday afternoon officially declared Maithripala Sirisena the new president of Sri Lanka. Making the announcement, Deshapriya said the joint opposition candidate earned 51.28 percent of the votes polled in the presidential election held Thursday, defeating incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa. Maithripala Sirisena, elected to govern Sri Lanka, was once jailed for alleged links to leftwing Sinhalese rebels who almost ousted the government in 1971. He remained in prison for 15 months. And if luck had not been on his side, Sirisena might have been assassinated by the Tamil Tigers who attacked his convoy in a suburb here in 2008, leaving one person dead. A devout Buddhist from the majority Sinhalese community, Sirisena, 63, he is passionately opposed to smoking and liquor.