Prime Minister and winner of the tightly contested presidential elections Mahinda Rajapakse waves to journalists as he comes out of the office of the Election Commissioner in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, Nov. 18, 2005. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

COLOMBO, Nov. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Sri Lanka's president-elect and the incumbent Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse will be sworn-in as the Indian Ocean island country's president at about 12:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) Saturday, said the official Daily News.

    Rajapakse was declared the country's 5th executive president by Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake Friday, concluding a gruelling presidential election campaign that pitted him against main rival Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

    The prime minister emerged victor by a majority of 181,786 votes over Wickremesinghe at Thursday's election gaining 4,887,152 votes. Wickremesinghe received 4,706,366 votes.

    There was minimal polling by voters from the northern and eastern areas in line with a call by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to disregard the poll.

    Rajapakse said Friday that he would stand by the people and work towards peace. He also urged the people to celebrate this victory peacefully without causing any physical or verbal harassment to the opponents.

    Rajapakse was born on Nov. 18, 1945 in the southern region of Hambantota and was educated at different colleges in Galle and Colombo.

    The southern electorate first voted for Rajapakse in 1970, making him - then aged 24 - the country's youngest ever MP.

    Before being appointed as prime minister in April 2004, Rajapakse held different positions such as labor minister, fishery minister in the cabinet of the incumbent president Chandrika Kumaratunga.

    He was the Sri Lanka Freedom Party's unanimous choice as presidential candidate. Rajapakse was also backed by the leftist party of JVP (People's Liberation Front) and the nationalist partyof JHU (National Heritage Party). Enditem