Colombo, Dec 07: Sri Lanka's former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar has alleged that "deal making" was the cause of his defeat at elections for the commonwealth's top job despite pledges of support from African states. A group of 12 Southern African states had adopted his candidature, but he received only 11 votes during the secret ballot on Friday in Ambuja, Kadirgamar said.

"We will never know the reasons," he said. "Secret deals may have been done. Deals are often done in international affairs between countries on a bilateral basis. What we do know is that much of the support that was promised did not ultimately materialise," he told a National Daily.

He said that African states had promised to lobby Caribbean states to support him, but "obviously they had not been successful," he was quoted by the 'Sunday Times' as saying.

He was confident that India had supported him together with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives that would even further reduce the number of votes from African states. Diplomatic sources here noted that a vote for Kadirgamar would have been to restore Zimbabwe's membership and thereby by default vote for taking back Pakistan in to the organisation of former British colonies.

Pakistan was suspended in 1999 after the military coup.

Kadirgamar's candidature announced less than two weeks before the commonwealth summit caused ripples within the 52-member organisation.

Bureau Report