Rajapakse denies coup bid

Sri Lanka's former president Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday denied government allegations that he attempted a coup to remain in office after it became clear that he had lost last week's election.

In comments published on Twitter as Pope Francis landed on the island, Rajapakse insisted he had readily accepted "the people's verdict" in what was his first reaction to last Thursday's polls.

Top aides of new President Maithripala Sirisena have alleged the veteran strongman tried to cling to power in the early hours of Friday by urging the island's army and police chiefs to deploy the security forces.

But Rajapakse wrote: "I deny in all possible terms reports of attempts to use the military to influence election results."

"I accepted the outcome long before the final official results were released and congratulated the new president," he said.

The 69-year-old, who came to power in a 2005 presidential election, added that he had "always bowed down to the people's verdict".

Sirisena's new administration has pledged to make an investigation into what it has called "the coup and conspiracy" one of its top priorities and ordered the sacking of hundreds of Rajapakse-appointed officials.

Although the military has not confirmed an approach from Rajapakse's camp in the hours before the final results were announced, Sirisena's top lieutenants have said there was clear evidence of a conspiracy.

Any sustained bid by Rajapakse to cling to power would have thrown a huge question mark over the visit by Pope Francis who called for human rights to be respected on the island as he flew into Colombo yesterday.

While Sirisena's camp have said that the army and police chiefs resisted the pressure from Rajapakse to launch a coup, leading lawyers have accused the country's Chief Justice Mohan Peiris of being party to a plot.

Lawyers have been demanding the resignation of Peiris, a former advisor to Rajapakse who was appointed chief justice after the controversial impeachment of his predecessor Shirani Bandaranayake in January 2013.