Sri Lanka's Tamil party sweeps polls, urges trust with government
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Sri Lanka's main ethnic minority Tamil party secured a landslide victory in a provincial poll that has threatened to rekindle animosity between the government and Tamils, four years after the military crushed separatist rebels and ended a 26-year war.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the former political proxy of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, won 30 seats in the 38-member provincial council in the former northern war zone, election officials said on Sunday.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling coalition won 7 seats, while a Muslim party won one.
It was the first provincial council election in the north in 25 years and was held after the government came under international pressure to restore democracy.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/09/22/uk-srilanka-election-idUKBRE98L01220130922
= new reply since forum marked as read
