The Army-backed paramilitary group, the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal party (TMVP), has won a landslide victory in the first elections to be held in eastern Sri Lanka for more than 10 years.
The TMVP or Karuna Group, set up by renegade Tamil Tiger leader, Karuna, won every local council in and around Batticaloa city, officials said.
Human rights groups and opposition politicians say that a climate of violence and chaos has tainted the election and have accused the TMVP of waging a campaign of violence ahead of the voting.
Much of the violence has been blamed on the TMVP, who have been accused of demanding protection money from businessmen and routinely killing people.
Rasiah Thurairatnam, who ran as an independent candidate in Batticaloa, told the AFP news agency that people "voted out of fear" for the TMVP.
He alleged serious irregularities by the TMVP at many polling stations.
"This is a victory for violence, and it will elicit serious repercussions from the people," he said. "I see this as a license for extortion and child abduction."
The main opposition UNP and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a coalition of Sri Lanka’s four largest Tamil parties, boycotted the election for control of eight local government bodies and Batticaloa municipal council.
“The elections are conducted in an atmosphere of terror, intimidation, displacement, disappearances, non-participation of mainstream Tamil political parties and the persecution of media,” Batticaloa District TNA MP, S. Jeyanandamoorthy told reporters.
“The Tamil National Alliance is totally boycotting these polls. Had our party fielded candidates, they would have been brutally murdered by the paramilitary groups.”
“The Sri Lanka government is conducting these elections as a prelude for permanent separation of East from the North; to institutionalise the forcibly altered ethnic composition of the East; to legitimise its genocidal agenda to the outside world and to get foreign funds for the oppression of Tamils in the name of their development.”
“The Batticaloa election has ignored the people’s rights completely,” UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said.
He described it as an election through which the Government has handed over the East to a terrorist group after taking it over from another terrorist group, he added, referring to the TMVP and the LTTE respectively.
“This is nothing but State terrorism,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said.
The TMVP helped Sri Lankan government forces force the LTTE out of the region last year.
In the elections in Batticaloa town, the TMVP ran under the banner of the ruling alliance of President Mahinda Rajapakse.
Rights groups and diplomats have questioned the government's decision to endorse the TMVP, which the United States this week said “used coercion, extortion, rape, and murder to force children and adults to join their ranks,.”
The local elections are seen as a dry run for a wider provincial vote in the north and east -- the government's blueprint for devolution in minority Tamil areas it says will go hand-in-hand with its push to crush the Tamil Tigers militarily.
The government, itself increasingly isolated over its human rights record as a 25-year civil war escalates, gave the armed faction free rein in the eastern Batticaloa district for months as the military battled the rebels.
President Rajapaksa's administration has long refused to disarm the TMVP, arguing it could not find anyone carrying guns to disarm -- despite the fact residents and aid workers could until a few months ago.
The TMVP reportedly ‘won’ more than 70% of the vote on Monday. The lection commissioner said overall voter turnout was more than 60 percent.
TMVP personnel were actively engaged in transporting voters to the booths and were also seen visiting households checking civilians' participation in the election, reports said.
At most of the voting booths, Police was strictly checking identity cards between 7:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. However, the checking was relaxed later. A number males who turned out to vote at Kalkudaa were drunk, according to eyewitness reports.
The TMVP’s founder, Karuna, a former Colonel in the LTTE, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment by a British court in January, on charges of identity fraud. Reports say that nominally he still leads the party, although it is reported to be divided as to whether he should remain in place.
The TMVP president, who goes by the nom de guerre of Pillaiyan, told reporters that his group still has guns for security.
A host of other former militant groups who joined the democratic mainstream in the 1980s also took part in the poll, as well as the island's main Muslim party.
"In Batticaloa, not only TMVP, many other armed groups are also there. Some of the Muslims also have arms," said Kingsley Rodrigo, chairman of the People's Alliance for Free and Fair Elections, the island's main election monitoring body.
"They have been keeping the arms with them. So I am not going to say this election is a free and fair one."
The TMVP or Karuna Group, set up by renegade Tamil Tiger leader, Karuna, won every local council in and around Batticaloa city, officials said.
Human rights groups and opposition politicians say that a climate of violence and chaos has tainted the election and have accused the TMVP of waging a campaign of violence ahead of the voting.
Much of the violence has been blamed on the TMVP, who have been accused of demanding protection money from businessmen and routinely killing people.
Rasiah Thurairatnam, who ran as an independent candidate in Batticaloa, told the AFP news agency that people "voted out of fear" for the TMVP.
He alleged serious irregularities by the TMVP at many polling stations.
"This is a victory for violence, and it will elicit serious repercussions from the people," he said. "I see this as a license for extortion and child abduction."
The main opposition UNP and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a coalition of Sri Lanka’s four largest Tamil parties, boycotted the election for control of eight local government bodies and Batticaloa municipal council.
“The elections are conducted in an atmosphere of terror, intimidation, displacement, disappearances, non-participation of mainstream Tamil political parties and the persecution of media,” Batticaloa District TNA MP, S. Jeyanandamoorthy told reporters.
“The Tamil National Alliance is totally boycotting these polls. Had our party fielded candidates, they would have been brutally murdered by the paramilitary groups.”
“The Sri Lanka government is conducting these elections as a prelude for permanent separation of East from the North; to institutionalise the forcibly altered ethnic composition of the East; to legitimise its genocidal agenda to the outside world and to get foreign funds for the oppression of Tamils in the name of their development.”
“The Batticaloa election has ignored the people’s rights completely,” UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said.
He described it as an election through which the Government has handed over the East to a terrorist group after taking it over from another terrorist group, he added, referring to the TMVP and the LTTE respectively.
“This is nothing but State terrorism,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said.
The TMVP helped Sri Lankan government forces force the LTTE out of the region last year.
In the elections in Batticaloa town, the TMVP ran under the banner of the ruling alliance of President Mahinda Rajapakse.
Rights groups and diplomats have questioned the government's decision to endorse the TMVP, which the United States this week said “used coercion, extortion, rape, and murder to force children and adults to join their ranks,.”
The local elections are seen as a dry run for a wider provincial vote in the north and east -- the government's blueprint for devolution in minority Tamil areas it says will go hand-in-hand with its push to crush the Tamil Tigers militarily.
The government, itself increasingly isolated over its human rights record as a 25-year civil war escalates, gave the armed faction free rein in the eastern Batticaloa district for months as the military battled the rebels.
President Rajapaksa's administration has long refused to disarm the TMVP, arguing it could not find anyone carrying guns to disarm -- despite the fact residents and aid workers could until a few months ago.
The TMVP reportedly ‘won’ more than 70% of the vote on Monday. The lection commissioner said overall voter turnout was more than 60 percent.
TMVP personnel were actively engaged in transporting voters to the booths and were also seen visiting households checking civilians' participation in the election, reports said.
At most of the voting booths, Police was strictly checking identity cards between 7:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. However, the checking was relaxed later. A number males who turned out to vote at Kalkudaa were drunk, according to eyewitness reports.
The TMVP’s founder, Karuna, a former Colonel in the LTTE, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment by a British court in January, on charges of identity fraud. Reports say that nominally he still leads the party, although it is reported to be divided as to whether he should remain in place.
The TMVP president, who goes by the nom de guerre of Pillaiyan, told reporters that his group still has guns for security.
A host of other former militant groups who joined the democratic mainstream in the 1980s also took part in the poll, as well as the island's main Muslim party.
"In Batticaloa, not only TMVP, many other armed groups are also there. Some of the Muslims also have arms," said Kingsley Rodrigo, chairman of the People's Alliance for Free and Fair Elections, the island's main election monitoring body.
"They have been keeping the arms with them. So I am not going to say this election is a free and fair one."
