SRI LANKA ? Sri Lanka’s prime minister – a hard-liner toward Tamil Tiger rebels – held a slim lead today with nearly half the votes counted from the island’s presidential election, in which grenade attacks and intimidation kept many minority Tamils from the polls.

As votes were slowly hand tabulated today, the election commission said Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse had about 2.4 million to nearly 2.3 million for his closest rival, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Balloting was smooth Thursday in western and southern parts of the island nation and overall turnout was slightly less than 10 million, or about 75 percent of 13.3 million registered voters, election officials said.