Colombo - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's party won provincial elections Saturday in the east where the military had ousted Tamil rebels in military operations earlier this year, election officials said Sunday. The ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won the election securing 20 seats over 17 seats for the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and two smaller parties which returned one member each.
The UPFA won the Batticaloa and Ampara districts and lost in the Trincomalee district, but secured 18 seats and also obtained two bonus seats.
The UPFA won 52.2 per cent or 308,896 of the 591,676 valid votes cast while the UNP secured only 42.3 per cent or 250,272 of the valid votes.
The victory was considered a boost for Rajapaksa's government which had called on voters to endorse the military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.
Before the polls, Rajapaksa said that a government victory would encourage security forces currently engaged in military operations against the rebels in the northern province.
The eastern province has a mixed population with 42.9 Tamils and 31.6 Muslims while the Sinhalese, who form the majority in the county, account for only 24.9 in the east.
It was not immediately clear whether Rajapaksa would appoint a Tamil or a Muslim chief minister of the eastern province. Before the elections, two contenders a Muslim and a Tamil, who heads a breakaway rebel faction, had emerged.
The breakaway armed rebel group contested under the UPFA and its leader Chandrakanthan Sivanesan alias Pilliyan also expects to be appointed chief minister.
Sivanesan had already obtained the highest preference votes securing 41,936 votes pver Muslim leader M.L.A.M. Hisbullah's 35,949 votes. However, the candidate who receives the highest number of votes is not automatically appointed chief minister.
The opposition has accused the TMVP group (Tamil People's Liberation Tigers) of carrying weapons, abductions and extorting money. But the group has claimed they are under threat from the Tamil rebels.
The government has defended the group saying that it has been able to bring a faction of a "terrorist" group to the political mainstream.
Nearly 60 per cent of the near 1 million voters turned up to vote in three districts.
Election monitoring groups and the opposition highlighted election irregularities including cases of impersonation, stuffing of ballot boxes, driving away polling agents of opposition parties and intimidation. The UPFA denied the claim and called the elections free and fair.
"We cannot accept the result as the election was not held in a free and fair manner", UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayaka said.
The opposition alleged the UPFA forged identity cards for displaced voters and those who have already left the country due to the conflict.
