Rajapaksa set to lead party to big win

Its outcome may be a foregone conclusion, but Sri Lanka's parliamentary election set for Thursday evokes both fear and expectation in the nation as it elects its first legislature since the end of the war last May.
Opposition parties and liberals fear that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, fresh from a mandate for a second term he got in January, may go all out to get a two-thirds majority in the 225-member parliament.
Rajapaksa's supporters are looking forward to consolidating their hold on the country's affairs with a big parliamentary majority, which is possible in Sri Lanka because it elects MPs based on the proportional representation system.