Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa says he will win an outright majority in the elections later this month, and is hoping to become prime minister.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sinhala service, Mr Rajapaksa said he was confident of winning more than half the seats in parliament.
"Clearly we will secure 117 seats," he told BBC Sinhala and rejected claims by the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe, that the SLFP campaign was in disarray, due to the split between him and President Maithripala Sirisena.
Mr Rajapaksa challenged the government to investigate killings and abductions which occurred while he was in power, accusing the prime minister of not doing enough.
"The same Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe has publicly accused a certain person of murdering Lasantha. Now they can investigate. They were in power for six months," Mr Rajapaksa said.
"Why they don't investigate now? Is it because those who are accused are in the UNP government? I truly suspect it is the case."
The former president said he did not regret any of the decisions made by him during his reign – apart from calling an early presidential election.
"Calling an election two years ahead of schedule, I think, was a wrong decision," he said.
"I haven't done anything else for me to regret."
See full report on the BBC here.
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