Mahinda Rajapaksa reaches Top Ten in ‘TIME 100’ poll

Mahinda Rajapaksa, listed in TIME Magazine’s TIME 100 most influential people in the world, has reached the Top Ten. The Sri Lankan President is currently ranked 6th in the list with a total of 85,934 votes. He is the highest ranked political leader in the list thus making him the most influential political leader.

Rajapaksa is the only politician in the Top Ten while only certain artists and the “Mother Teresa of Asia” the Taiwanese Buddhist nun, Cheng Yen is ahead of him.

The President, appearing for the very first time in the online poll carried out by Time Magazine, is the also the first Sri Lankan leader to be featured in the TIME 100 Top Ten.

Amongst other prominent world leaders in the list is US President Barack Obama at the 46th position while US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and India’s Congress President Sonia Gandhi are in at 42 and 95 respectively.

The magazine’s profile on President Rajapaksa states that “Since ending Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long war against the Tamil Tigers in 2009, and grabbing control over once independent institutions like commissions on human rights and elections, Mahinda Rajapaksa has come to dominate the institutions of his nation more than any other democratically elected head of state. “

“He challenged the U.S., the European Union and the U.N. to prosecute him for war crimes, confident that Russia, China and India would not support it — the latter two have billions of investment at stake in Sri Lanka.” it said.

The 2011 TIME 100 Poll Result

	Rank		Name	Influential	Not Influential	Total Votes
	1		Rain	414311	34079	448390
	2		Jay Chou	212285	36396	248681
	3		Susan Boyle	153206	5598	158804
	4		Cheng Yen	90836	6304	97140
	5		Beyoncé	69409	9181	78590
	6		Mahinda Rajapaksa	71990	19181	91171
	7		Chris Colfer	53070	9414	62484
	8		Christopher Hitchens	39987	3248	43235
	9		Bradley Manning	35884	1593	37477
	10		Glenn Beck	54777	22635	77412
	11		Julian Assange	26848	2747	29595
	12		Lady Gaga	32175	8258	40433
	13		Tawakul Karman	23239	4715	27954
	14		Ron Paul	21039	2519	23558
	15		Fukushima Power Plant Workers	22697	5542	28239
	16		Mohamed Bouazizi	17801	1127	18928
	17		Wisconsin's 'Fab 14' State Senators	20945	5301	26246
	18		Han Han	16179	1379	17558
	19		Rihanna	18459	5022	23481
	20		Dan Savage and Terry Miller	15585	2751	18336
	21		Alan Mulally	11074	1006	12080
	22		Mohamed Elbaradei	11359	1362	12721
	23		Aamir Khan	10473	1666	12139
	24		Gabrielle Giffords	11193	3584	14777
	25		Wael Ghonim	9982	2679	12661
	26		Mara Brock Akil	8493	1254	9747
	27		Hu Jintao	8068	1104	9172
	28		Mark Zuckerberg	9446	2665	12111
	29		Al-Jazeera	6968	1559	8527
	30		Michelle Obama	10878	5613	16491
	31		Ray Kurzweil	6162	1070	7232
	32		Michelle Rhee	6242	1879	8121
	33		Sarah Palin	8147	3918	12065
	34		Andy Cohen	5295	1255	6550
	35		Betty White	5792	1883	7675
	36		Marc LaForce	4186	888	5074
	37		Steve Jobs	3906	667	4573
	38		Craig J. Venter and Daniel Gibson	3945	759	4704
	39		Aung San Suu Kyi	3398	228	3626
	40		Chilean Miners	4744	1603	6347
	41		Stephen Hawking	3457	372	3829
	42		Hillary Clinton	4430	1439	5869
	43		Warren Buffett	3438	488	3926
	44		Cory Booker	4001	1135	5136
	45		Elizabeth Warren	6511	3973	10484
	46		Barack Obama	5568	3150	8718
	47		Ryan Schreiber	3024	791	3815
	48		Christian Bale	4102	1994	6096
	49		Lee Unkrich	2837	773	3610
	50		Mark Bittman	3185	1162	4347
	51		Johnny Depp	2859	913	3772
	52		Conan O'Brien	2682	807	3489
	53		Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert	5328	3575	8903
	54		Florence and the Machine	2946	1267	4213
	55		Katy Perry	4196	2543	6739
	56		Geoffrey Canada	1987	370	2357
	57		Carrie Fisher	2525	940	3465
	58		Paul Ryan	2547	1057	3604
	59		George Clooney	2411	956	3367
	60		Marco Rubio	2189	831	3020
	61		Anna Bligh	2039	708	2747
	62		Mitt Romney	3258	1939	5197
	63		Rafael Nadal	2150	839	2989
	64		Colin Firth	1860	579	2439
	65		Salvatore Giunta	1495	255	1750
	66		Andy Carvin	1912	694	2606
	67		Cecile Richards	6122	4932	11054
	68		Jeff Bridges	2163	994	3157
	69		Kamala Harris	1776	639	2415
	70		Clinton Cragg	1533	432	1965
	71		David Petraeus	1735	645	2380
	72		Scott Brown	2351	1266	3617
	73		Robert Gates	1413	338	1751
	74		Vladimir Putin	1510	440	1950
	75		Marisol Valles Garcia	1281	235	1516
	76		Roger Ebert	1505	476	1981
	77		Chris Christie	2138	1116	3254
	78		Lionel Messi	2021	1016	3037
	79		Dick Costolo	1762	759	2521
	80		Charles Ferguson	1289	337	1626
	81		Trey Parker and Matt Stone	1516	588	2104
	82		Oprah	2268	1364	3632
	83		Matt Damon	1869	980	2849
	84		Benjamin Netanyahu	1503	625	2128
	85		Derrick Rossi	1702	856	2558
	86		Sandra Bullock	2145	1315	3460
	87		David Drummond	1523	734	2257
	88		Jamie Oliver	1343	575	1918
	89		Yukio Edano	1050	309	1359
	90		Natalie Portman	2893	2185	5078
	91		Siddhartha Mukherjee	1084	389	1473
	92		Mumford & Sons	1711	1026	2737
	93		James Franco	1578	899	2477
	94		Li Chengpeng	1496	841	2337
	95		René Redzepi	1722	1093	2815
	96		Christopher Nolan	1161	541	1702
	97		Ricky Gervais	1328	709	2037
	98		Sonia Gandhi	1112	505	1617
	99		Christine Loh and Joanne Ooi	1161	564	1725
	100		Levon Helm	1094	534	1628
	101		V.S. Ramachandran	1157	622	1779
	102		Roy Choi	1311	786	2097
	103		Reed Hastings	831	306	1137
	104		Daniel Hernandez	1081	633	1714
	105		Dmitri Medvedev	1108	673	1781
	106		David Karp	1026	617	1643
	107		Prince William and Kate Middleton	2643	2236	4879
	108		Sam Kass	935	553	1488
	109		Davis Guggenheim	708	331	1039
	110		John Boehner	2482	2175	4657
	111		Nikki Haley	867	623	1490
	112		David Cameron	799	566	1365
	113		Ahmad Shuja Pasha	722	530	1252
	114		Seiko Noda	509	324	833
	115		David Brooks	1006	844	1850
	116		Lisa Jackson	714	556	1270
	117		Roger Ailes	1449	1293	2742
	118		Terry Gou	517	365	882
	119		Margaret Hamburg	506	375	881
	120		Amy Poehler	1162	1036	2198
	121		Malcolm Gladwell	459	339	798
	122		Joe Biden	2420	2301	4721
	123		Sofia Vergara	720	618	1338
	124		Neil Young	998	905	1903
	125		Jack White	899	842	1741
	126		Naoto Kan	523	468	991
	127		Lara Logan	904	893	1797
	128		Alex Kipman	379	378	757
	129		Charles and David Koch	1026	1035	2061
	130		Tavi Gevinson	562	588	1150
	131		Cristoph Schönborn	665	695	1360
	132		Mukesh Ambani	401	433	834
	133		The Gregory Brothers	496	531	1027
	134		Rob Bell	1102	1142	2244
	135		Hassan Nasrallah	623	667	1290
	136		Aaron Sorkin	526	580	1106
	137		Jon Huntsman Jr.	555	646	1201
	138		Isabel Wilkerson	423	519	942
	139		Mark Wahlberg	504	612	1116
	140		Michael Tilson Thomas	275	387	662
	141		Andrew Mason	729	845	1574
	142		Michele Bachmann	4423	4543	8966
	143		Jonathan Franzen	313	461	774
	144		Jon Hamm	399	548	947
	145		Lisa Stone	311	460	771
	146		Nathan Myhrvold	624	784	1408
	147		Javier Bardem	393	553	946
	148		Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt	1073	1236	2309
	149		Alex Ferguson	467	637	1104
	150		Peter Vesterbacka	261	432	693
	151		Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy	300	505	805
	152		Louis C.K.	621	842	1463
	153		Jennifer Lopez	2109	2337	4446
	154		Hamid Karzai	403	650	1053
	155		Roger Goodell	295	548	843
	156		Kathleen Sebelius	677	932	1609
	157		Clay Shirky	190	448	638
	158		Cee Lo Green	581	863	1444
	159		Nick Denton	288	594	882
	160		Sarah Burton	536	845	1381
	161		Tilda Swinton	303	630	933
	162		Justin Bieber	5207	5535	10742
	163		Arianna Huffington	1816	2149	3965
	164		Hung Huang	310	672	982
	165		Téa Obreht	214	586	800
	166		Jennifer Egan	174	551	725
	167		Mia Wasikowska	207	586	793
	168		Than Shwe	153	534	687
	169		Frank Darabont	270	681	951
	170		Marine Le Pen	619	1071	1690
	171		Michael Fassbender	212	678	890
	172		Brian Roberts	413	881	1294
	173		Feisal Abdul Rauf	870	1366	2236
	174		Muqtada al-Sadr	978	1488	2466
	175		Jamie Dimon	2131	2670	4801
	176		Jay-Z	1056	1623	2679
	177		Sepp Blatter	530	1165	1695
	178		Aaron Rodgers	699	1400	2099
	179		Bob Dudley	423	1265	1688
	180		Jenna Lyons	237	1084	1321
	181		Grant Achatz	834	1724	2558
	182		Bruno Mars	835	1742	2577
	183		Michael Vick	388	1308	1696
	184		Annette Bening	673	1646	2319
	185		Russell Brand	884	1900	2784
	186		Aziz Ansari	955	1983	2938
	187		Silvio Berlusconi	416	1484	1900
	188		Dilma Rousseff	1027	2392	3419
	189		Newt Gingrich	1856	3363	5219
	190		Willow Smith	408	1970	2378
	191		Lady Antebellum	795	2390	3185
	192		Liu Xiaobo	3371	5057	8428
	193		Ai Weiwei	8879	10703	19582
	194		Rooney Mara	157	2123	2280
	195		Gwyneth Paltrow	1362	3358	4720
	196		Scott Walker	9715	11915	21630
	197		Zach Galifianakis	4641	7631	12272
	198		Chelsea Handler	2548	7365	9913
	199		Kim Kardashian	812	6406	7218
	200		Charlie Sheen	4198	9919	14117
	201		Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi	730	6536	7266
	202		Amy Chua	3176	11023	14199
	203		Kanye West	7102	34850	41952