Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, seeking re election two years ahead of his term on Monday morning unveiled a 14-point programme titled, `A brighter future’ with the promise to put Sri Lanka in a prominent position in the world.<br/><br/>Stating that Sri Lanka was now a nation of one people, the President said he would soon hold the provincial election in the North to give power to the Tamils to administer their needs. With just over two weeks left for the date of polling and manifestos of the two chief contenders released, the campaign has got into top gear. A few months ago, re-election of Mr. Rajapaksa was considered a foregone conclusion.<br/><br/>However, the emergence of the retired army Chief Sarath Fonseka as the rallying point for most of the Opposition parties has made the election a tough fight for the President. As both the chief contenders are from the majority Sinhalese community, the focus would be on the choice of Tamil and Muslim voters who account for roughly 25 per cent of the electorate.<br/><br/>An emotionally choked Mahinda Rajapaksa at the launch of the manifesto today conceded that he spent most of the four years of his first term in fighting terrorism and that he had barely six months left to address other important issues.<br/><br/>He promised that his next term would be wholly devoted to addressing issues that would take the country to development and progress, giving priority to the battle against corruption with the same determination with which he had fought the underworld and terrorism.<br/><br/>In another development Tamil journalist T S Tissainaygam convicted under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) by the Sri Lankan Court was today granted bail pending appeal by the Appeal Courts.