Sri Lanka President Ahead in Vote

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who survived a weekend assassination attempt, looked likely to scrape by with a win in Sri Lanka’s presidential election today after a record number of people voted despite violence.

As counting reached the halfway mark, official results from 90 of the 182 polling divisions showed that Kumaratunga of the ruling People’s Alliance had taken 50.64% of the vote. Her main rival, Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party, had 43.14%, state TV said.

Heavy voting was reported despite accounts from independent monitors and Wickremesinghe’s party of several incidents of poll fraud and violence.

At least seven people have died in election violence, police said, and at least 36 people died in two weekend bomb attacks--one of which injured Kumaratunga--blamed on separatist rebels.