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Sri Lanka: Tamils win elections in the north
by Melani Manel Perera
This is the first heavy defeat for President Rajapaksa’s party of, which still takes home 45 out of 65 local authorities across the country. The Northern and Eastern provinces were most affected by the thirty-year ethnic conflict. Suspected irregularities in some polling stations an investigation into the district of Kilinochchi to annul the results is opened.
Colombo (AsiaNews) - The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest Sri Lankan Tamil party, has won local elections in the north and east provinces, former war zones of the country. A clear victory but not taken for granted, which represents a significant setback for the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. In fact, the United People's Freedom Alliance (Upfa) - majority coalition - brought home 45 of 65 local authorities against 18 of the TNA. But the election result reveals that ethnic polarization is still a problem in Sri Lanka.
"The Tamil people voted for a dignified political solution - says Suresh Premachadran, TNA secretary - as we said in our campaign." "The entire government machinery was against us - he continues - even the ministers and the president participated in the campaign against us. Yet, people have overwhelmingly chosen us. "
The Minister Douglas Devanada instead accuses the Tamil party of having "incited racist sentiments, saying that the Sri Lankan people are going to settle in the entire North."
The elections were held in a tense atmosphere, in which allegations of various irregularities and boycotts were made by both parties. The Network for Election Monitoring of the Intellectuals for Human Rights (Nemihr) has asked the election commissioner, the guarantor of the proper conduct of elections, to annul the results of the vote in the district of Kilinochchi. The night before the elections, armed groups are reported to have burst into houses and stolen some ballot papers and identity cards.
According to final results, in the Upfa obtained 512 seats, the TNA 183, the Unp (United National Party, Democrat) 137. The JVP (Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, a Marxist-communist) and the TULF (Tamil United Liberation Front) were left with crumbs, having taken - respectively - 13 and 12 seats.