Tamils go to polls in war-torn Sri Lanka

Northern region expected to gain limited authority in crucial test of reconciliation

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka - A former political proxy for Sri Lanka’s defeated Tamil Tiger rebels swept the country’s northern provincial election, according to results released early this morning, in what is seen as a resounding call for wider regional autonomy in areas ravaged by a quarter-century of civil war.

The country’s elections commission announced that the Tamil National Alliance will form the first functioning provincial government in the northern Tamil heartland after securing 30 seats out of 38 in Saturday’s election. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s coalition won eight seats.

Tamils fought for self-rule for more than six decades after the country gained independence, first through a peaceful struggle and then a bloody civil war, but failed.

However, Saturday’s elections give them a limited say in their own affairs - a taste of democracy after decades under rebel or military control.

No major violence was reported Saturday, but election monitors reported that army soldiers and pro-government party members stood near polling stations and threatened voters. The elections are seen by the United Nations and the world community as a crucial test of reconciliation between the Tamils and the majority ethnic Sinhalese,who control Sri Lanka’s government and military.

“Our political problems must be resolved; another generation must not be destroyed,” Rasathurai Balasubramanium, a 56-year-old mason, said after voting in his village, Thavadi.

The country’s ethnic divisions widened with the quarter-century civil war that ended in 2009 when government troops crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels, who were fighting to create an independent state.

At least 80,000 people were killed in the war, and northern cities, including many on the Jaffna peninsula, were reduced to rubble.

More than 700,000 voters were registered for Saturday’s elections, though voterturnout was not immediately known. The provincial council is largely powerless, and the new government led by former Supreme Court Justice C.V. Wigneswaran will have to contend with a center-appointed governor who will control most of the council’s affairs.

Wigneswaran said before the vote that winning the election would give his administration the public backing to lobby for wider powers based on federalism.

The central government is against granting such wide powers and said even existing powers in provincial hands, such as those over land and policing, are a threat to the country.

But residents say the army is taking over large swaths ofprivate land to build camps and even businesses such as hotels, and bringing in Sinhalese people to change the province’s ethnic makeup.

Angajan Ramanathan, a 30-year-old businessman and the leading candidate for Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party, said working close to the government will bring more benefits to the war-hit community.

Election campaigning had been marked by sporadic attacks and threats, mainly against Tamil National Alliance supporters.

On Saturday, fake copies of a newspaper supportive of the Tamil National Alliance was circulated in parts of Jaffna saying the party had withdrawn from the elections, in what appeared to be an effort to confuse voters.

As voting closed, anxious residents in the fishing village of Kurunagar gathered at a polling station to make sure ballot boxes were safely dispatched to the counting centers.

Tamils have been demanding regional autonomy in the country’s north and east, where they are the majority, since Sri Lanka became independent from Britain in 1948. The campaign took the form of nonviolent protests for many years, but in 1983 civil war broke out between government forces and armed Tamil groups calling for full independence.

Front Section, Pages 12 on 09/22/2013

Upcoming Events