<br/>Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has secured comfortable leads over his closest rival in terms of postal votes in 20 out of 22 districts in Sri Lanka with more than 65 per cent votes cast in his favour. Sarath Fonseka got the majority of postal votes from the Jaffna and Batticaloa Districts.<br/><br/>Even as the report is being filed, Mahinda Rajapaksa has established a lead of over 2 lakh votes. Results of 20 counting divisions have been released where Mahinda Rajapaksa is leading in 15 of them with 7 ,43,353 votes while the combined opposition candidate Fonseka leads in the other five with 487, 728 votes.<br/><br/>Unofficial results indicate that Mahinda Rajapaksa may get a very comfortable margin of victory. Meanwhile, Rajapaksa is leading from the home town of Sarath Fonseka at Ambalangoda with over one million votes.<br/><br/>Contrary to fears expressed, the first peacetime presidential election, following the defeat of the LTTE last May, was held yesterday (January 26) without any serious incidents of violence, though there were some reports of explosions before the polling started in the Jaffna peninsula and other minor incidents in some other areas.<br/><br/>The police and the military said that heavy presence of law enforcement personnel backed by security forces had ensured a peaceful environment. Independent Election monitors, too, said the election had been largely peaceful barring minor incidents of violence.