The winner of Tuesday's Sri Lankan presidential election must find a way to triumph in a long battle against inflation while sustaining economic growth in a nation still healing from a 26-year civil war. Voters will choose between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who quit in November. Rajapaksa, 64, called the poll two years early to capitalize on last May's defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels who had fought for a homeland in the north and east of the country, located off the southern tip of India. Peace lifted economic growth and helped make Sri Lankan stocks Asia's best- performing, buoyed by a construction spree and increased farm production in the former war zone. Sustaining that momentum will require taming an inflation rate that has frequently exceeded 20 percent, which has weakened the currency and deterred investment. 'We love the economy and its prospects but Sri Lanka has always struggled with monetary control,' said Roman Scott, chairman of Singapore-based Calamander Group, which runs a Sri Lankan private equity fund. 'Inflation and the threat of inflation lead foreigners to distrust the Sri Lankan rupee.' Rajapaksa has vowed to spend $4 billion, or almost 10 percent of Sri Lanka's gross domestic product, building roads, railways and power plants in the Tamil- dominated north. He says he'll hold elections for a provincial council and give Tamils a 'greater say' in governance. Fonseka, whose lack of political experience is offset by support from opposition parties and the main Tamil alliance, accuses his rival of corruption and economic mismanagement. He has promised to heal a racial divide born of a conflict that claimed more than 100,000 lives, as well as build roads and lure investment to boost growth. There have been no nationwide opinion polls given the difficulty of surveying voter intentions in the former war zone and the tight timeframe. In a poll on the Web site of the privately-run The Island newspaper, 53 percent of 2,458 readers who expressed an opinion said they expect Rajapaksa to be re- elected, while 43 percent predicted a Fonseka victory. There was no margin of error given for the survey. Postwar reconstruction helped drive growth above 4 percent and the central bank is predicting a 7 percent expansion in 2010. The growth spurt already pushed the inflation rate to a nine- month high of 4.8 percent in December. As recently as June 2008, consumer prices in Colombo jumped 28 percent from a year earlier. 'From a business angle it's important to have inflation in single digits but in a growing economy you won't be able to keep it that low,' said Hasitha Premaratne, head of corporate finance at Colombo-based Brandix, the nation's biggest apparel exporter. 'Still, high variations in inflation have to be controlled.' The next president must also practice fiscal restraint after the island negotiated a $2.6 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund in July. In return, Sri Lanka agreed to reduce its budget deficit to 5 percent of GDP by 2011, from an estimated 7 percent in 2009. While 22 candidates are vying for the presidency, the campaign has been conducted as a two-man race. Voters will get to list their top three choices for president. If either Rajapaksa or Fonseka gets 50 percent plus one ballot he will be declared the winner. If not, the second and third preferences of those who didn't vote for either leading contender will be counted, according to the Election Commission. Fonseka, 59, fell out with the president over who should take credit for the war victory. He has no experience running an economy and is backed by a disparate opposition. The 'hastily arranged' coalition backing Fonseka 'does not give foreigners a strong signal,' said Scott. 'What they crave is stability above all.' A victory for Rajapaksa would ensure policy continuity, said Mumbai-based Anushka Shah, an economist at Citigroup. Fonseka's election pledges suggest he would contain profligacy in public finances and take more conciliatory steps to appease and resettle Tamils, Shah said. Fonseka has resisted the Tamil National Alliance's call for a merger of north and east to avoid alienating the majority Sinhalese community. Tamils make up about 12 percent of the population of more than 20 million. Both men must also deal with war crimes accusations aimed at the army. A United Nations human rights advocate urged an independent investigation of the alleged execution of Tamil Tigers after determining a videotape of the incident is authentic. 