COLOMBO, Sept 22: Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party today secured a landslide win in the historic provincial council polls held after a gap of 25 years in the former Tamil Tigers- ruled northern province, an outcome expected to give limited autonomy to the Tamils after the end of decades of ethnic war.
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) convincingly trounced the ruling UPFA coalition of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, grabbing 30 of the 38 seats in the much-awaited polls in the province.
The 30 seats won by TNA include two bonus seats allocated to the winning party under Sri Lanka’s proportional representation system, according to official results.
The UPFA coalition won just 7 seats and the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress only one. The TNA defeated the ruling UPFA coalition in all five districts in the once LTTE bastion.
The Tamil alliance received over 80 per cent of the votes polled in Jaffna, Vavuniya and Kilinochchi districts. In Mullaithivu and Mannar districts, they won 78 and 61 per cent respectively.
In Jaffna, regarded as the cultural capital of the Tamils, the TNA garnered 86 per cent of the votes polled.
Over 2,000 local and foreign observers, including from India, were deployed in the Northern Province, where people voted to choose the 38-member council for a five-year term.
Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said the polls held for the Northern, Central and North Western provinces are by and large free and fair except for some minor incidents.
The ruling party has won all the seats in the Central and North Western Provincial Councils, the other two councils that held polls yesterday except for the MahaNuwara seat in the Central Province which was the only one secured by the UNP.
Reacting to the party’s stunning performance, senior TNA legislator MA Sumanthiran said the Tamils have spoken.
“We told them this election was an opportunity for them to declare their political stance. They have clearly made a statement by voting for UNA,” Sumanthiran said.
Suresh Premachandran, a veteran legislator, said the northern people have sent a clear message to the government that they want a political solution without separation.
The ruling coalition’s election campaign was centred on attacking the TNA manifesto. TNA was accused of trying to drag the country back into the LTTE’s era of terror.
The main Tamil party was arguing that they were espousing the cause of Tamil self-determination in a federal set up. (PTI)
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