Mahinda's lead narrows

Nov 18 (LankaWatch) By 5 am in Sri Lanka close to 2 million votes have been counted with Mahinda leading by about 15,000 votes which is only by about 1% of the total counted votes. Mahinda has lost the wide margin he initially held when the counting began late yesterday evening. With more than 50% of the votes still to be counted, the race is still regarded as wide open.