Sri Lanka provincial polls: Main Tamil party sweeps

Colombo, Sept 22: The

National Alliance (TNA),

's main minority Tami outfit, swept the provincial council elections in the Northern Province after 25 years. The results were declared on Sunday.

The party secured 30 out of 38 seats for the newly formed council. The ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won seven seats while the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress got the remaining one. The polls were held in five districts of the North Province, most of which were dominated by the LTTE for nearly three decades before the rebel outfit was decimated in May 2009 and its leader V Prabhakaran was killed.

In Jaffna district, the TNA secured over 84 per cent of votes while the UPFA finished with a paltry 14.20 per cent of the votes. Over 2.7 lakh voters cast their ballots on September 21.

In Jaffna district, the TNA got over 84% of votes while the UPFA got just 14.2%

The TNA, led by R Sampanthan with former Supreme Court judge CV Wigneswaran as its chief, fought the polls with a demand for self-determination in the North for the Tamils but stopped short of calling a separate Tamil state, a demand for which the LTTE had clashed with the Sri Lankan government for almost three decades.

The government, led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa earlier accused the TNA of trying to incite communal discord through its poll manifesto. On Sunday, however, the government welcomed the peaceful polls and authorities said they gave the people of the Northern Province an opportunity to decide their future.

In Kilinochchi district, also dominated by the LTTE in the past, Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) won over 82 per cent of votes while the UPFA won just over 17 per cent votes. The ITAK also won overwhelming majority of vote shares in Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu districts of the Northern Province.

OneIndia News